More than 600 million people in Africa lack access to electricity, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Development Services, University of Lagos, has said.
Ogunsola said in Ibadan on Tuesday while delivering the 7th annual public lecture of the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA).
According to her, the access rate to electricity in Africa has been slowly rising since 2000 and currently stands at 43 percent.
“Africa accounts for 600 million of the one billion people globally without access to electricity.
“The projection for sub-Saharan Africa is that access will double by 2030, but there will still be about 600 million people without access to it due to high population growth rates and uneven development.
“This low rate of access can be turned to a major advantage with the embrace of renewable energy such as solar energy,’’ she said.
Ogunsola advised Nigeria to urgently work on how to control the growing population.
She said unless population was controlled infrastructure development would not match a geometrically growing population.
The don also advised government at all level to address healthcare problems holistically.
“For Nigeria’s health institutions to be ready for the future, it must digitise patient records in an electronic management system.
“Few countries of the world spend over one percent of their Gross Domestic Product on research, Nigeria spends less than one percent of her GDP on research.
“Government must invest in human capital development rather than in infrastructure; only a literate populace will develop infrastructure,’’ she said.
MM/GIK/APA