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Night falls on Oubékou-Gah, a village east of Parakou town near Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin in West Africa. Activities cease. Stores close and businesses shut down. Mariam Chabi comes home all tired from the field with her bundle of wood.
Without bothering to rest a little, she hastens to make the fire and prepare the evening meal. She lines up long, seasoned pieces of wood in the traditional three-stone hearth in the middle of the yard. She then straightens up to tie the loincloth tightly around the child she is carrying on her back and finally looks for the embers at her co-wife who had finished cooking.
In the neighbouring concession, children do their homework by the light of a polluting kerosene lamp.
In this village, the connection to the national electricity distribution network does not yet exist. The rural electrification rate in Benin is 10 per cent, with just under 400 electrified localities.
In electrified villages and even in the city, electricity is expensive and not easy to obtain.
The subscription to the electricity network, which depends on the regions of the country, costs at least 75,000 CFA francs ($125.85).
Average consumption less than or equal to 20 KWh is billed at 86 CFA francs per KWh. Beyond 20 KWh, the rate increases 23 francs per KWh. For consumption less than or equal to 500 KWh, consumers are charged 25 francs.
The price of electricity in the Republic of Benin is a lot more expensive than in the sub-region, according to Andoche Amègnissè, president of the Water and Electricity for All Association.
In Benin, there are many rural localities like Oubékou-Gah that are not yet electrified. In these and even in those that are already electrified, the use of electricity for cooking food is non-existent.
Cooking meals in rural areas is still done with firewood fetched from bushes miles from their village mostly by women.
Moreover, firewood is becoming increasingly scarce in rural communities and many women like Mariam Chabi face difficulties and risks to obtain it.
“Rural communities mainly use firewood for their cooking and heating needs. They burn large quantities of wood with traditional three-stone fireplaces, which waste a lot of wood, and are harmful to health,” said Gauthier Koffi Amoussou, forest agronomist and coordinator of the non-profit Eco-Benin.
Apart from firewood, charcoal is also used in rural and urban areas for cooking. A large bag of charcoal sells for 7,500 CFA francs, while the small bag costs 4,500 CFA francs.
Benin’s forests are vanishing due to abusive, excessive and illegal logging.
Each year, about 100,000 hectares of forest are destroyed by bush fires, services such as agriculture and timber as well as manufacturing of charcoal.
More than five million tonnes of wood energy is used per year for cooking meals in Benin.
The great dependence of populations on forest products and firewood accentuates the degradation of forest areas.
This is why certain structures are developing and promoting food cooking devices that consume less wood energy and which help reduce deforestation and deal with climate change around forest ecosystems.
One such example is Wanrou, which is an improved ceramic stove by Eco-Benin and is an imitation of an Eritrean iron model.
In Benin, in a rural household, a person consumes an average of 1.5 kg of wood per day with traditional stoves, which has consequences on health and generates air pollution.
Today, the use of refillable gas cylinders weighing six or 12 kilograms sold respectively at 28,000 and 40,000 CFA francs. These also help reduce the dependence of the urban population on fuel wood.
The country’s energy sector started witnessing a change since 2016.
The electricity code was adopted in 2020 and with that, the Beninese Electric Energy Company no longer had a monopoly in electricity production and distribution. Although the number of its subscribers has increased sharply (about 1 million), it now shares this market with other private players.
In addition, Benin commissioned several thermal and renewable energy production units.
With the rehabilitation of several thermal power stations and the construction of the dual fuel 127 megawatt thermal power station of Maria-Gléta on the outskirts of Cotonou in 2019, the country achieved a little more than 60 per cent autonomy in electrical energy compared to zero capacity in 2016.
Other large-capacity power plants under construction in Glo-Djigbé and on the Maria-Gléta site to supply the country’s special economic zones and industrial free zone will strengthen this energy autonomy.
The achievements made have considerably reduced the massive import of electricity. According to the Electricity Regulatory Authority, the country imported around 98.5 per cent of electricity in 2018.
The share of electricity consumed that is imported from neighbouring Nigeria and Ghana has fallen to about 35 per cent.
Better still, the strengthening and extension of the electricity networks has improved the supply of electricity to people living in the north of the country.
The high-voltage electricity network has increased from 1,073 kilometres built for 56 years in the country to more than 1,800 kilometres in 2021, according to Dona Jean-Claude Houssou, former minister of energy.
In six years, according to Houssou, the government invested nearly 800 billion CFA francs in the energy sector.
The investments have also contributed to reducing the average power outage time, which has fallen from 75 hours in 2016 to less than 12 hours at present.
The same is true for the average breakdown processing time, which has fallen from more than 12 hours to less than 2 hours.
Benin has potential for solar, biomass and especially hydroelectricity.
Like Burkina Faso and Mali, Benin is particularly suited to photovoltaic solar energy. Each year, they receive up to 3,000 hours of intense natural light that can be used to provide much-needed energy to isolated communities.
The country has a national renewable energy policy, which gives a vision of the next 20 years. A special fund to help invest in this area has also been set up.
The first 25 megawatt power plant was inaugurated in Pobè 105 km east of Cotonou, with the support of several technical and financial partners. Solar power plants that have been inactive for years have been rehabilitated.
By 2026, the Beninese government will commission five other 100 megawatt solar power plants, as well as a 128 megawatt multifunction hydroelectric dam.
It has also planned to build other additional solar photovoltaic power plants, with a combined capacity of 50 megawatts to supply several rural localities.
In recent years, nearly 200 rural localities have been electrified throughout the country with solar energy.
All in all, by 2030, the country is betting on 100 per cent electrification with a total installed capacity of around 1,180 megawatts from both solar energy and thermal power plants.
Benin also faces the challenge of reducing CO2 emissions from the excessive consumption of firewood and energy.
From 1997, the country became a net source of greenhouse gas emissions, when its emissions exceeded absorption due to a combined effect of deforestation, forest degradation and increase in GHG emissions, especially from the sector’s energy and agriculture.
In 2015, the total net emissions were estimated at 7,792.37 Gg CO2 eq, 47.4 per cent of which came from the energy sector, according to a study by the ministry of living environment and sustainable development.
But Benin, following the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement, has undertaken to reduce overall cumulative greenhouse gas emissions, excluding the forestry sector, by around 49.49 Mt eCO2, or a reduction of 16.17 per cent during 2021-2030.
In the energy sector, Benin intends to reduce cumulative greenhouse gas emissions by 23.35 Mt E CO2 from 2021-2030.
But to successfully mitigate GHG emissions and adapt to climate change, the country needs $11,637.02 million to implement the measures listed in its nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement.
Part of this article appeared in the cover story of the July 1-15, 2023 print edition of Down To Earth under the headline ‘Time Africa Switched’.