Obama’s Africa Power Plan Falls Short, Leaving Continent in Dark
- The president’s signature Africa initiative hasn’t panned out
- ‘We’re on our way’ to success, Obama says at forum in New York
Barack Obama attends the Power Africa Innovation Fair in Kenya in 2015.
Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
President Barack Obama’s signature initiative for Africa -- a $9.7 billion plan to double electricity access in the world’s poorest continent -- has fallen well short of its goals, so far producing less than 5 percent of the new power generation it promised.
Obama announced Power Africa three years ago with an ambitious goal: to add 10,000 megawatts of power and supply electricity to 20 million households within five years. As he addressed the U.S.-Africa Business Forum in New York on Wednesday, the project has yielded less than 400 megawatts of new power after running into political and economic difficulties.