By: ESI Africa

Griffiths is the Country Director for Enersado Energy in Zambia. Based just outside of Lusaka, the Zambia capital, Enersado Energy has been working on projects in country for around 4 years now and they’re about to start on the commencement of their first solar farm in the country.

This experience has given them insights into some of the challenges facing the country’s energy sector as well as some of the quick gains that could be main in addressing said challenges.

“For me I would say it’s access to cheaper finance. Everybody is scared of the risk of ZESCO or small industries and things like that.

“As a result they pump [up] the price of the finance, which makes life for everybody quite difficult. So when you hear of all of these people in the various COPs claiming they will help Zambia or other nations, trying to elicit better rates of finance is one of the bigest challenges.

“We should be paying 2 to 5% interest, not 10 to 20%, becausee it has a fundamental impact on what we we can achieve.

“So, that’s what I’d really like to see the rest of the world kind of deliver on their promises and the help we really need in this country is to be able to afford this advancement into renewable technology,” answered Griffiths.

He thinks the country’s new open access policy to sell energy to anyone means they can use the solar plant’s excess energy instead of having to curtail the production is a great step in the right direction.

Griffith also talks about being privileged to witness the impact energy access can make in small communities. He questions the accuracy of global reporting pointing to 600 million Africans without electricity when his experience on the continent tells him it is actually more than that.