Feature/OPED
Lean Carbon, Just Power
By Louis Strydom
Why a small, temporary rise in African carbon emissions is justified to reach the continent’s urgent electrification needs
Africa holds 17% of the world’s people yet produces roughly 4% of global CO₂. On a per-capita basis it emits about one ton a year, the lowest of any continent. Africa also contains the world’s largest pocket of energy poverty. The question that matters is not whether to cut carbon, but how much temporary pollution is tolerable on the way to energy prosperity, and under what constraints.
An old question, a sharper answer
Orthodoxy has split into two camps. One says “no fossils, ever”, a moral stance that collides with fragile grids and frequent blackouts. The other says “gas or nothing”, tidier for funders, but often impossible where gas infrastructure does not exist.
A better course is lean carbon: a minimal, time-limited overdraft of emissions to buy dependable power now, with covenants that force an early peak and a rapid decline. Think of it as carbon on credit, a capped facility, not a blank cheque.
An old curve, a new context
The Environmental Kuznets Curve describes an upside-down U. Pollution rises at low incomes, then peaks and falls as countries grow richer and regulate more. Africa can peak lower and earlier than historic industrialisers because renewables are cheaper, technology has improved and coal can be avoided. The policy aim is to flatten the hump: accept a small bump now to reach the downhill sooner.
Reality, not dogma
Today’s counterfactual is not a continent powered neatly by wind and sun. It is millions of diesel generators humming in courtyards and factories because the grid is unreliable. Studies suggest self-generation already equals about 6% of installed capacity in sub-Saharan Africa, at a punishing 0.30 to 0.70 dollars per kWh, several times typical grid tariffs. When utilities falter, governments lease emergency diesel in bulk. In some cases these contracts have cost 3 to 4% of GDP. A clean sentence in a strategy does not change the physics of a failing system.
Intermittent renewables alone cannot yet stabilise a weak grid at scale. They need firm capacity, storage, or both. The sensible choice is planned, efficient firm power that complements solar and wind, rather than the messy reality of unplanned, dirtier backup.
The gas-only headache
If fossil molecules must feature, natural gas is preferable to oil products: fewer local pollutants and roughly half the CO₂ of coal per kWh. But gas-only is a mirage in much of Africa because pipes and LNG are scarce and markets are small. Outside a few corridors there are only a handful of regional gas arteries, notably the West African Gas Pipeline from Nigeria to Ghana and the line from Mozambique to South Africa. Grand schemes to extend them have moved slowly. Most countries lack the demand density to finance pipelines or import terminals. Insisting on gas everywhere, now, often means no power at all.
Policymakers have improvised. Ghana plugged supply gaps with a floating powership that initially burned heavy fuel oil, then switched to domestic gas once supplies and connections were ready. Senegal has commissioned Heavy Fuel Oil-capable plants built to convert to gas when new fields and pipes arrive. These are bridges engineered to shorten the dirty phase, not invitations to lock-in.
What a workable plan looks like
A credible lean-carbon pathway is neither all-renewables tomorrow nor gas for ever. It has three moving parts.
Power plants that can switch fuels
New power stations should be able to start running right away—using heavy fuel oil or diesel if needed—but be built so they can easily switch to natural gas when supplies become available. This avoids blackouts today without locking countries into oil and gas for decades. Modern reciprocating engines can start and stop quickly, making them ideal substitutes for solar and wind power when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.
Fossil fuel use that drops over time
Fossil fuels should be relied upon only when necessary, shifting focus to using them for system stability and renewable-scarce periods. If they are the only means of electricity generation, we should systematically seek to decarbonise them. That way, emissions per unit of GDP fall fast, even before absolute emissions peak. The first target is to displace diesel generators, the dirtiest and costliest kilowatt-hours on the continent.
Covenants that bind
To make sure the “carbon overdraft” stays small and temporary, it needs hard limits. These include deadlines for switching to cleaner fuels, limits on total emissions, and power purchase agreements that reduce payments to conventional plants as renewables and storage grow. The focus should be on financing the whole energy system – renewables, backup power, and better transmission lines – not just individual plants.
Funders are shifting, cautiously
Development financiers are moving from blanket bans to conditional support for transitional projects. A growing chorus argues that gas should form part of Africa’s just energy transition, provided it is integrated into national climate plans and structured to de-risk the shift to cleaner power. The most useful money crowds in private capital to systems, not stand-alone assets. The priority is hybrids that cut diesel use immediately and accelerate renewables later.
Why the bump is acceptable
Two points matter for the climate ledger. First, Africa’s historical contribution is tiny. Sub-Saharan Africa excluding South Africa has emitted well under 1% of cumulative CO₂ since the industrial revolution; including South Africa the region is still under 2%. Second, the opportunity cost of delay is enormous. Energy-starved economies grow slower, which makes the clean transition harder to finance. A modest, time-boxed rise to something like a 5% share of global CO₂ as grids stabilise would still leave Africa’s burden small by world standards, especially if the uptick displaces diesel and comes with a dated plan to fall.
Risks, spelled out and mitigated
The obvious risk is lock-in: today’s bridge becomes tomorrow’s motorway. That is why the contract matters. Write conversion deadlines and decommissioning triggers into PPAs. Require modular plants whose value survives a fuel switch. Publish transparent emissions dashboards. Include stop-loss clauses if milestones slip. Another risk is cheap-today myopia, choosing the lowest upfront tariff and ignoring reliability, ramping and integration costs. The remedy is to procure systems and judge bids on whole-system cost and carbon, not just cents per kWh.
One final objection is to wait for cheaper batteries. Storage costs are falling and Africa should adopt them early. But telling a low-income country to wait five years for round-the-clock electrons is not climate policy; it is development deferred. High costs of capital already hobble clean projects. Suppressing growth makes those costs worse. Better to grow with discipline, shrink diesel immediately, and use rising demand to make gas and storage bankable, then retire the fossils on schedule.
The ask
For energy ministries and regulators: publish peak-and-pivot plans that show when emissions will crest and what will force them down. Bake overdraft covenants into every firm-power tender. Allow dual-fuel where necessary, but mandate gas-ready design, switch-by dates and emissions-intensity floors.
For development financiers and multilaterals: fund hybrids and grids, not single-fuel bets. Reward early conversion and managed retirement. Deploy guarantees to cut the cost of capital for storage and transmission.
For developers and independent power producers: bid least-carbon firm power, not cheap today and stuck tomorrow.
Africa does not seek permission to pollute. It seeks permission to end energy poverty quickly while peaking emissions early. That is the lean-carbon bargain: a small, declining hump instead of a long, dirty plateau, and a faster route to the sunny side of the Kuznets curve. The task for partners is to help keep the overdraft small, and to pay it back fast.
Louis Strydom is the Director of Growth and Development for Africa and Europe at Wärtsilä Energy
By Owoloye Emmanuel
Every business starts with a problem. For us, that problem was hiding in plain sight.
Across organisations, we kept seeing HR professionals, payroll teams, and business leaders spend significant time navigating processes that should be simpler. Employee records sat across multiple systems, payroll processes required manual intervention, and routine workforce tasks often became more complicated than they needed to be.
As businesses grow, workforce operations naturally become more complex. Yet many organisations still rely on disconnected tools and workflows that create unnecessary friction for both employers and employees.
The consequence is more than operational inefficiency. HR teams spend valuable time managing systems instead of supporting people. Business leaders struggle to access timely workforce insights, while employees experience delays in processes that should be seamless.
These weren’t isolated challenges. They were recurring realities across workplaces, regardless of industry or size.
That observation led us to a simple question: what if workforce management could be easier?
What if HR, payroll, and workforce operations could work together within a single, connected experience?
That question became the foundation for 234 Solutions.
We are building 234 Solutions with a clear belief that workplace technology should reduce complexity, not add to it. Our goal is to help organisations spend less time navigating processes and more time focusing on productivity, growth, and people.
As we prepare for launch, our focus remains simple: building practical solutions for real workplace challenges and helping organisations create better experiences for the people who power them every day.
Owoloye Emmanuel is the founder of 234 Solutions
Scroll through social media today, and you will notice something interesting: everyone is either reacting to a series, quoting a movie line, or debating a character as though they personally know them. Beneath the memes and binge-watch culture, however, lies something deeper. Television remains one of the most powerful tools shaping how Africans see themselves, remember their history, and tell their own stories. In a continent as diverse and expressive as Africa, that matters more than ever.
TV as a Cultural Archive, Not Just Entertainment
Long before streaming algorithms began shaping our viewing habits, television was already preserving African identity. From Nollywood dramas that capture the rhythm of everyday Lagos life to documentaries exploring Maasai traditions and Ghanaian folklore, TV has served as a living archive of the continent’s stories.
It preserves more than entertainment; it preserves language, culture, humour, values, and shared experiences. Unlike fleeting social media content, television allows stories to unfold with depth, exploring the realities of family, tradition, ambition, and modern African life without reducing them to stereotypes. That is the power of TV: preserving not just stories, but perspective.
Why Representation on TV Still Matters
There is a subtle but important truth: if people do not see themselves on screen, they may begin to believe their stories are not worth telling. This is why African TV content is more than entertainment; it is affirmation.
Seeing a character who speaks like you, struggles like you, or celebrates like your community does something powerful. It validates identity and challenges outdated narratives that have historically defined Africa through external lenses.
This is where MultiChoice Group, through platforms such as DStv and GOtv, plays an important role. They do not simply broadcast content; they help distribute cultural memory at scale.
GOtv, DStv, and the Everyday African Viewer
Think about a typical evening in many African homes: the TV is on in the background, someone is laughing at a comedy show, another person is watching a local series, and someone else is catching up on the news. That shared viewing experience remains very real.
Through platforms such as DStv and GOtv, African households are exposed to a blend of local storytelling and global content. More importantly, they have helped amplify African-produced content by bringing Nollywood films, African reality shows, talk shows, and documentaries into mainstream rotation.
It is not just about access. It is about visibility.
A young filmmaker in Lagos today is more likely to believe their story matters because they have seen similar stories broadcast widely. A child in Accra grows up hearing familiar accents and seeing environments that look like their own on screen, not as exceptions, but as the norm.
TV Is Also Shaping Modern African Identity
African identity is not static; it is evolving. Television reflects that evolution in real time.
Today, audiences see:
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Young Africans balancing tradition and modern dating culture
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Stories tackling mental health in African households
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Fashion and music influences spreading through TV series
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Political satire shaping public conversation
Conversations that were once confined to homes are now being explored on screen, giving audiences the language to discuss issues that were previously unspoken.
In many ways, television is doing what oral tradition has always done: passing stories, values, humour, warnings, and history from one generation to the next. The difference is that today’s griots are writers, directors, and broadcasters.
The Future: From Watching to Owning Our Narratives
The next stage of African storytelling is not just about being seen; it is about ownership.
As more African creators produce content and platforms continue to invest in regional storytelling, television becomes more than a mirror. It becomes a tool for shaping how Africa is represented to itself and to the world.
While streaming continues to grow, television, particularly accessible platforms such as GOtv, remains one of the most effective ways to reach everyday audiences across different income levels and regions. After all, storytelling only matters if people can access it.
African stories are not new. They have always existed in families, on streets, in markets, in history books, and through oral traditions. What television has done, and continues to do, is give those stories a stage wide enough for millions to experience them at once.
The next time you watch a local series or documentary on DStv or GOtv, remember that you are not just being entertained. You are participating in the preservation of African identity itself.
By Kehinde Ogundare
Ask a tech entrepreneur in San Francisco what AI means for their business, and they are likely to talk about competitive advantage, product differentiation, and scale. Ask a small business owner in Kano or Onitsha the same question, and the conversation shifts entirely.
For many Nigerian SMEs, the priority is keeping the lights on, managing costs, and finding sustainable ways to grow in a challenging economic environment. This difference in perspective explains why the global AI conversation, often shaped by assumptions about stable infrastructure, deep capital, and abundant technical talent, frequently fails to address the realities facing Nigerian SMEs.
This matters because Nigerian SMEs are not a peripheral concern. In 2024 alone, MSMEs contributed 46.32% to Nigeria’s GDP, accounting for 96.9% of businesses and 87.9% of employment. These businesses are the backbone of the Nigerian economy, and if AI is going to mean anything for Nigeria’s development, it has to work for them in the daily conditions they actually operate in.
However, research drawing on empirical data from 144 Nigerian SMEs found that inadequate infrastructure, low digital literacy, skills shortages, and regulatory gaps are collectively preventing them from meaningfully engaging with AI. Awareness of AI is high and growing. What is missing is a clear and honest conversation about what adoption actually requires in this specific context. The barriers are real, but none of them are insurmountable. The question is whether the tools, pricing models, and support structures being offered to Nigerian SMEs are designed with those barriers in mind, or whether they have been built for another market entirely.
Subscription models making AI affordable for small businesses
When most small business owners hear “AI,” they imagine expensive software, specialist consultants, and a hefty upfront bill.
That assumption is not entirely wrong, but it describes a particular way of buying technology, not AI itself. The shift that makes AI genuinely accessible at the SME level is the move away from large, one-time capital purchases towards tools that charge a predictable monthly subscription. Businesses can pay for what they use, scale back when necessary, and avoid the debt that a major technology investment can create.
The deeper opportunity here is consolidation. Many SMEs are already spending money across multiple disconnected tools—one for invoicing, another for customer records, another for stock tracking—none of which talk to each other. An integrated platform that handles several of these functions together, with AI built in, can actually cost less than the sum of those separate subscriptions while giving business owners a clearer picture of their operations.
With margins already under pressure, any technology a business adopts needs to visibly show an increase in productivity or bottom line. Subscription-based, integrated platforms, priced transparently and honestly, are the model that best fits this reality.
Infrastructure challenges demand a mobile-first approach
No conversation about technology in Nigeria is complete without confronting the infrastructure problem, and AI is no exception. Nigeria continues to face major infrastructure barriers, including limited broadband access, unreliable power supply, and high data costs, all of which constrain deeper AI adoption. These are structural features of the operating environment that any sensible technology strategy must account for today.
The electricity situation alone is significant. The World Bank estimates that the lack of stable electricity costs Nigeria’s economy approximately $26.2 billion annually, equivalent to about 2% of GDP, forcing many businesses to run on expensive diesel generators. That cost ripples outward.
In practical terms, AI tools built for Nigeria cannot assume a stable broadband connection or a computer that is always powered on. The tools that will actually get used are the ones that work on a smartphone, consume minimal data, and can function offline when connectivity drops, syncing back up when it returns. The mobile phone is already how many Nigerian SME owners run their businesses. AI that meets them there, rather than demanding infrastructure they do not have, is AI that has a genuine future in this market.
The direction is clear: build capability from within, using tools that make that possible. Recent AI performance research reveals that 64% of African workers are already actively using AI at work, signalling massive grassroots readiness and driving forward-thinking organisations across Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa to aggressively prioritise internal upskilling frameworks to bridge the talent gap.
As the policy groundwork is being laid, the commercial ecosystem is beginning to respond. What remains is a clear-eyed acceptance that AI tools built for this market need to look different from those built for markets with different realities. Low cost, low bandwidth, and usability for non-technical people are not modest ambitions; they are the actual requirements. Build for those realities, and AI has a real future in Nigeria’s SME economy.
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