Riding on the African Union’s -AU 2022 theme, ‘The Year of Nutrition’, the African Energy Chamber -AEC is celebrating the Africa Day in line with the idea of a multisectoral approach to ensure food and nutrition security as well as the scaling up of investment and development across the energy sector.
The energy Sector being the backbone of every economy, the African Energy Chamber believes that the sector will continue to play an increasingly vital role in ensuring resilience across the entire food value chain from boosting food production, processing, transportation, and within the food retail sector using the multisectoral approach to ensure food and nutrition.
Accordingly, the AEC also believes that speeding up the diversification of the continent’s energy mix through increased exploitation of the vast energy resources available will help improve food security, and drive economic growth whilst checkmating factors such as lack of adequate energy supply and investments, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and related natural disasters, as well as political and regional conflicts that are worsening the food crisis in Africa.
In the words of the Executive Chairman of the AEC, NJ Ayuk who would be speaking at the African Energy Week -AEW 2022 in Cape Town,” Without a secure energy supply, Africa cannot curb malnutrition and ensure food security, the answer to solving Africa’s food crisis lies within the potential of the continent’s oil and gas industry-backed with an increasing investment within the energy sector to unlock the potential of Africa’s overall economy and drive massive investment in manufacturing, agriculture, and retail” he said.
Ayuk also opined that it is only with this that more jobs will be created for Africans to be able to feed themselves, he said.
As the African continent targets net-zero hunger by 2030, Africa should prioritize addressing energy poverty. The AEC, through AEW 2022, Africa’s premier event for the oil and gas sector which will take place from 18 – 21 October 2022, in Cape Town, will continue to connect African governments and energy stakeholders with regional and international investors to discuss, negotiate and sign deals that will optimize energy developments to ensure industrialization and food security across the African continent.
According to the World Food Program’s Cost of Hunger in Africa Study, over 346 million people in Africa suffer from severe food insecurity while African countries are losing the equivalent of between 1.9 and 16.5% of their gross domestic profit (GDP) due to child under-nutrition. In this regard, African countries such as Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Algeria, South Sudan, Libya, and Angola, whose economies are heavily reliant on the oil and gas industry, have an opportunity to accelerate energy production and monetization to improve job creation and GDP growth whilst putting food on the table for their population.
Moreover, with 65% of the African population relying on subsistence farming to curb food insecurity, issues such as lack of access to reliable energy and modern water management and agricultural systems have hindered food security. As a result, the continent is a net food importer and is vulnerable to global supply chain disruptions. The AEC believes that strengthening energy access and affordability in Africa through the increased use of domestic energy resources can help address this and reinforce agro-food systems continent-wide.
Moreover, with the energy transition taking center stage across the globe, decentralized energy systems such as solar microgrids have an important role to play in supporting traditional energy resources including coal, diesel, and oil, as well as offering new connectivity opportunities that could power the agriculture industry. Specifically, off-grid solar solutions provide subsistence farmers access to affordable power to fuel farming activities. Additionally, these solutions can help commercial farmers mitigate the challenges imposed by climate change such as flood, drought, and erratic rainfall, thereby improving food production and agro-processing while strengthening food security continent-wide.
