Read How Britain is Taking Electricity to the Most Remote Parts of Africa Using Solar Panels

Posted by Samuel on Thu 22nd Oct, 2015 - tori.ng

The power blackout in Africa is excruciatingly painful and this is even more so when the solutions to the problems are obviously within reach but are not being utilized. Read how the Britain is planning to put an end to this pain.

The Earth pictured at night shows most countries lit up by bright white light. But most of

Africa remains in the dark, with two thirds of people in the vast continent living without electricity

Careful observation of the Earth when pictured at night shows most countries lit up by bright white light however most of Africa remains in the dark, with two thirds of people in the vast continent living without electricity.

It is this striking image that has inspired Britain's Minister of State, Department for International Development, Grants Shapps to back an ambitious plan to get mini-solar kits into every home in Africa by 2030, with families paying for their power by text message.

Some 600 million people live in sub-Saharan Africa without power, equivalent to 70 per cent of the population.

Half of firms claim the lack of electricity stops them from doing business. Figures suggest the poorest people in Africa pay up to 80 times more for their electricity than families in Britain.

Mr Shapps visited a a real-time solar electricity monitoring system at the Lagos State

Electricity Board headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos, during a 3-day visit to Nigeria

Grant Shapps told MailOnline he wants to fast track ‘affordable, reliable and clean energy’ to the whole of Africa by 2030.

Today he is launching a campaign - Energy Africa – which will see the UK government support a drive to accelerate the use of solar power.

Mr Shapps wants to use the influence of Britain’s aid budget to remove red-tape and force countries to work together to help firms raise the capital to roll-out the technology more quickly.

Elizabeth Mukwimba, a 62 year-old farmer from Tanzania, has had a solar kit installed in her home thanks to

the UK-backed scheme to fast-track electricity to the most remote parts of Africa

Crucially, it means using the international development budget to make Africa more economically secure but making it easier to do business.

Writing for MailOnline, Mr Shapps said: 'Africa won’t see universal access to electricity until 2080. Two hundred years after Edison invented the lightbulb.

'That is why we are launching the UK’s Energy Africa campaign today. I want to fast track affordable, reliable and clean energy to the whole of Africa by 2030.

'The blank space on the globe at night urgently needs to be lit up. Energy Africa will make that happen with the kind of British ingenuity that helped create Africa's largest mobile payment system. Technology which is now helping the least well off buy cost effective, safe, solar power.'