‘Regional cooperation required to tackle Africa's energy crisis’

By Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, Oct. 14, GNA - Dr Victoria Nalule, a Research Fellow, University of Dundee, has stated that Africa would need regional cooperation to tackle the various forms of continental energy crisis facing it.

She noted that due to the lack of infrastructure, most Africans did not benefit from available resources even though they were blessed with them.

"So, one of the things that can be done is to ensure cooperation in the establishment and development of regional energy infrastructure and that includes electricity transmission lines, oil and gas pipelines, and all these have to be done at a regional level," she said.

Dr Nalule said this in her presentation at a Public Lecture organised by the Graduate School of the Ghana Telecom University College in Accra.

It was the 20th Edition of the College’s lecture series, on the theme: "Energy Access and Energy Security Challenges in Developed and Developing Countries".

She explained that building infrastructure like refineries and oil and gas pipelines would enable most of the people to benefit from natural resources.

She called for cooperation in energy regulations and laws to ensure updated and harmonized laws and regulations governing the sector.

“These must be established on transparency and accountability to enable the people to know how much revenue their countries are getting from the oil and gas resources and how the revenues are being used,” she said.

Goal Seven of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on energy access, emphasised access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy for all.

"It’s very important for us to ensure that we achieve SDG-7on energy access because it’s very key in ensuring the achievement of other Goals including poverty eradication, quality education, and gender equality.”

GNA

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