Micro-Generation: A Key to Africa's Future

Just over a year ago, a friend asked me to contribute a writeup to her blog on Innovation. I've reproduced it below, especially as this is a topic which is near and dear to my heart. Enjoy.

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Some of the key questions facing the growing economies in Africa - especially in regards to improving infrastructure and creating new avenues for revenue generation – revolve around energy. The how, where, which, who and what of energy.


How can Africa's vast potential to generate energy be harnessed?
Where will this energy come from?
Which forms of energy will be exploited?
Who will be responsible for developing these energy sources - the government or private enterprise?
What measures will be taken to ensure the sustainability - not just the renewability - of said energy?

As is usual with questions like these, there are easy answers which require complex solutions, not to mention an acute awareness of the infrastructure and socio-political climate on the ground.

This space is not enough for these questions to be answered with the required depth and technical detail, but I'm of the opinion that infrastructure development in Africa has to go past the fossil-powered 20th century and be driven by sustainable sources of energy. One of these is microgeneration, which I rank highly due to its ability to aid in development and revenue generation.

A Little Of Everything

I've been away from the blogosphere for too long and for three primary reasons. The main reason has been my recent desire to focus less on discussing situations that appear untenable for the time being (i.e. Nigeria's hopeless political situation). I'm also determined to 'do more, talk less' when it comes to development issues facing black people the world over, and have recently taken steps (graduate studies at the London School of Economics) to fine-tune my abilities to combine the technical with the economic when preaching the sustainable development gospel.

Other, more salient reasons include my upcoming wedding (who knew planning it could be as involved as it's been? Thank God for my bride) and almost as importantly, the recent completion (sans some editing) of my book, which is a story of everyday life in Nigeria circa 1990s. More information on that will be forthcoming.

I will endeavor to post more to the blog, but these will focus more on economics and development-themed issues.