COVID-19 Led To More People In Africa Having No Access To Electricity - IEA Chief

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th November, 2020) The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a downturn of the African countries' GDP by 6 percent, while more people in Africa have no access to electricity than in 2019, Chief of International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol said on Tuesday.

"In the last several years we have seen that despite the population growth, the number of people that have no access to electricity declined ... but this year, we saw for the first time in several years, the trend has reversed and now more people in 2020 have no access to electricity compared to 2019," Birol said at the African Union - IEA Ministerial Forum on Powering Africa's Energy Future.

Even though the African continent has not been hit by the pandemic as hard as other continents in terms of health, the total GDP of the African countries declined by 6 percent, the IEA chief added.

"Energy investment, especially electricity investment, in Africa declined by 30 percent of all energy investment, biggest decline in any continent," Birol said.

As the energy investment had fallen, fewer people in Africa will have access to electricity, the IEA chief explained.