By Moses Patience Chat
Africa, with her massive unexplored gas fields, would be able to provide great employment opportunities to its people, if the continent enhances gas penetration by developing gas infrastructure.
This is according to Hawilti, a Pan-African investment research agency, and the International Gas Union in a joint report released this February.
The report suggested various initiatives that could be adopted to develop gas infrastructure and markets in Africa, not only as a renewable energy alternative in countries without hydropower or geothermal energy, but to also promote gas-based industrialization that could lead to more employment opportunities.
Based on the report, Africa, with more than 8 per cent of the world’s proven reserves of natural gas, still remains the most energy-poor continent worldwide. It added that most industries in Africa still rely on costly, inefficient and polluting sources of energy, with many households lacking modern access to energy.
“In the African context, using gas to produce fertilizers or power-efficient freight transportation is key to supporting the continent’s growing industrial base as it rolls out the African Continental Free Trade Area,” the report read in part.
Suggestions on exploring several avenues, including developing industrial clusters, reforming electricity markets, promoting regionalization and encouraging the adoption of small-scale technologies to enhance gas penetration were also stated in the report.
The study further explained that, in 100 job opportunities in the natural gas distribution industry, 638 indirect jobs are created as a result of other related industries, citing an example of what happened in the United States.
The report also stated that nearly 600 million Africans cannot boast of access to electricity, and almost one billion currently lack access to clean cooking. It added that majority of people in sub-Saharan Africa have an electricity consumption that is below that of an average US fridge.
Yet, according to the report, the potential of gas to provide reliable and relatively clean electricity to Africa remains unexplored.