(2 minutes read)
The Togolese government in 2018 had launched an electrification plan
for the country, in partnership with the private sector to achieve
100% coverage by 2030, entailing a cost of US$1.5 billion
. Heart of the matter is providing uninterrupted power supply to over
8 million inhabitants of the country including people who stay in far
off places and increasing number of enterprises, which are coming up
across the breadth and width of the tiny southern African country.
The transformation of Togo may be slow. But the country has been
incrementally progressing. Not many years ago, there were villages,
which did not have electricity and people from villages had to go
miles to connect with the rest of the world, including for purchase of
their essential goods. Now that is changing. Now electricity is
reaching villages, people can sleep in summer nights under the comfort
of fans and for watching a football match, the craze of the country,
they can watch the live on TV, which have started making deep inroads
into the countryside as modern gadgets and electronic goods are
changing the rural landscape of the country.
How did it happen? The Togolese government in 2018 had launched an
electrification plan for the country, in partnership with the private
sector to achieve 100% coverage by 2030, entailing a cost of US$1.5
billion. That is making the difference. According to the available
data, in 2016-17, only 30% of the landmass of the country was
connected with electricity. Now, the coverage has gone up to 50%. The
progress may be satisfactory, but the fact is that there is even now a
huge power gap of 50%. The government is seized up with the
predicament and is rolling out ambitious plans to achieve energy
security by 2030. In that process, it is tapping non conventional
energy sources. It has abundant sunshine and wind to switch over to
clean energy. Admittedly, that entail a huge expenditure and target
oriented work.
The government has other plans for the country, which is importing
presently power from Nigeria and Ghana. With the anticipated
improvements in the energy availability from a combination of sources
including conventional sources like hydro power and scaling up
imports, Togo is embarking on an industrialization plan mainly driven
by the small and medium industries. Heart of the matter is providing
uninterrupted power supply to over 8 million inhabitants of the
country including people who stay in far off places and increasing
number of enterprises, which are coming up across the breadth and
width of the tiny southern African country. Will that happen as per
the wishes of the government and the citizens is the trillion dollar
question being asked?
