Blackouts Hurt Africa's Tech Progress

Power outages, caused in part by receding water in hydroelectric dams, are threatening to derail Africa's technological progress.

South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana and countries within the Sahara desert all suffer from power shortages because demand outstrips supply.

In South Africa, last year's power rationing program, called "load shedding," raised serious concerns as data centers, business process outsourcing facilities and other technology installations suffered from hours of downtime.

This year, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have introduced electricity rationing that results in industrial areas losing power intermittently for a day or a few hours at a time and residential areas losing power for up to three days in a week.

"The situation in Kenya is very ironic. I have a friend [offering technical services locally and abroad] who shifted his offices from Nairobi city center to one of the residential areas; now he is experiencing blackouts for three days in a week," said Tony Ng'eno, managing director of WinAfrique Technologies Ltd. in Nairobi.

Power problems increase costs for IT providers and users alike by requiring additional sources of power such as generators, said Dobek Pater, a telecommunications analyst at Africa Analysis, in South Africa.

Officials are trying to persuade international companies to set up data centers in the region, yet those facilities require ample power for servers and cooling systems. "Generators can be used, but only for smaller data centers. This means that the development of large data centers is unlikely to take place," added Pater, via e-mail.

Ghana has had power shortages since 2006 "due to a light rainy season that led to an extremely low water level at the Akosomboa Dam, Ghana's main source of electricity," said Yaw Owusu, managing director of Gateway Innovations Ltd., an IT and outsourcing services provider in Africa.

Owusu said the government of Ghana has embarked on an ambitious project to build more power stations -- in partnership with the private sector -- and hopes to export power to the West Africa region by 2012.

? Rebecca Wanjiku , Computerworld Kenya