Tunis — In a special report on power in Africa: "Powering Africa" published in its January 2010 issue, "African Business" ranks Tunisia as the country with the highest electrification rate on the continent, including North Africa and Sub Saharan Africa.
Tunisia which is credited with an electrification rate of 99% comes ahead of Algeria, 98%, Egypt 98%, Libya 97%, Mauritius 94%, Morocco 85% and South Africa with a surprising 70% only.
The report writes that "there is no doubt that Africa's relatively slow development is due most of all to its severe lack of sufficient power. The correlation power sufficiency and economic development is unmistakable."
Noting that some African countries are approaching universal electrification, the report adds that in Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and Egypt there has been a "sustained government support for rural electrification as a form of social development over the past 10 or 15 years".
If energy inequality and climate change are the two problems confronting Africa, the report also points out that the "driving force for electrification must come from within Africa itself", stressing the importance of cross-border integration as a way to promote electrification.
In a chilling illustration of this inequality between developing and industrialized worlds, the article reveals that while "one megawatt of power must supply 300 people in the United States, the same capacity must stretch to 30,000 East Africans".