00:02Turkish Airlines presents Business Africa.
00:11Hello and welcome to this brand new episode of Business Africa.
00:15I am Ronald Kato.
00:17This week, with Europe baking under record smashing temperatures,
00:21how insulated are Africa's electricity grids from intense heat waves?
00:28Also coming up, a mobility revolution no one saw coming.
00:32We report from a Ghanaian town turning a security challenge into an opportunity to electrify its transport.
00:41Plus, no intermediaries.
00:44Beijing allows South Africa's Standard Bank to clear payments in its currency
00:49as efforts to cut the dollar out of China-Africa trade intensify.
00:56Thank you for joining us.
00:58Climate change is amplifying the intensity and frequency of heat waves in Africa's cities.
01:03When temperatures soar, the demand for cooling surges, putting energy grids under severe pressure.
01:10Africa's electricity grids are old and lack adequate maintenance.
01:14They require urgent interventions to make them more climate resilient.
01:20Across Africa, cities are grappling with extreme heat waves that threaten public health, infrastructure, and livelihoods.
01:28Due to climate change, urban centers are experiencing record-breaking temperatures
01:32of on 5 to 10 degrees above their usual seasonal average,
01:36piling pressure on already overburdened electricity grids
01:40as households and businesses rush to cool food and buildings.
01:43Africa is home to some of the hottest cities on Earth,
01:47where average temperatures soar well above 40 degrees for weeks in a month.
01:52Without resilient grids, growth slows while populations suffer heat-related health risks.
01:59In 2025, Zambia battled months of blackouts
02:02after a long drought severely cut water levels in the Kafue River.
02:07According to the International Energy Agency,
02:10extreme heat can cause transmission lines and transformers to overheat
02:14and even lead to failures or fires.
02:17As urbanization accelerates across Africa,
02:20the demand for cooling and water can only grow.
02:22With 600 million people already without electricity,
02:25experts say African countries must invest in grid modernization
02:29while also aggressively developing off-grid solutions for optimum energy security.
02:37Brian Ayo is an engineer and technical lead at Troxon Electric.
02:42Thank you very much, sir, for your time.
02:45What kind of threat does extreme weather,
02:49especially heat waves, pose to Africa's energy grids?
02:53Most of the generation we have in Africa,
02:56especially sub-Saharan Africa, is from the dams.
03:00We don't have many alternative sources of energy going into the grid.
03:05So the heat waves would cause the dams to have reduced water levels.
03:10So it affects what's being injected into the grid.
03:14Then the heat waves are also leading to increased power consumption.
03:19For example, the air conditioning is going on a lot.
03:24So an air conditioner takes a lot of power.
03:28So with this increase in power consumption,
03:31the grid is basically strained a lot.
03:34The heat wave also affects the power transmission equipments.
03:39We are looking at the cables which heat up.
03:41So the generation companies and transmission companies
03:44have to reduce on the power they are sending out on those transmission lines
03:49to avoid them collapsing.
03:51And then when we look at renewable energy,
03:54for example, solar panels are meant to work within a certain temperature range.
04:00Let's say the temperature exceeds 45 degrees Celsius.
04:04We are going to have reduced efficiency on the solar panels.
04:09How then do alternatives such as solar and wind help to take the pressure off electricity grids?
04:17Now the off-grid solar solutions like the one we offer here at Troxon Electric
04:22allow for customers to have their own sort of microgrid.
04:27This means they are able to generate their own electricity,
04:30which will be sufficient enough to meet the low demands they have.
04:34Across some markets in Africa, we have distributed generation being piloted.
04:41With distributed generation, the customers who have excess PV generation during that time
04:46are able to sell to the grid through net metering the excess generation they are having.
04:54So this, in the form of distributed generation, allows for the grid to be stabilized
05:00because they are having a lot of input from many small solar producers.
05:07We mainly call them prosumers because they are producing solar and giving to the grid
05:12and also getting from the grid when they need it.
05:16How can African countries make their grids more climate resilient?
05:20So the grids can become more resilient by integrating these alternative sources of power
05:27because the majority of Africa right now depends on hydro generation, especially sub-Saharan Africa.
05:34So when we integrate solar through large solar farms, we look at having wind farms.
05:42It's being implemented in some countries in Africa, Kenya, Pase.
05:46They are implementing wind farms in the Tucana area.
05:50So all this makes the grid resilient.
05:53We can also look at having pooled electricity where, for example, when we look at Uganda having excess generation,
06:01Tanzania having excess generation, this can be sent to countries, for example, Rwanda and Ethiopia and Kenya,
06:10where this will stabilize their grid power and allow for the grid to be stable.
06:17We're also looking at having integration of a smarter grid.
06:23A smarter grid is one where the metering is done in real time.
06:28Faults are isolated in real time.
06:30So this reduces the downtime we have from failure from old equipment.
06:36So if Africa can look at ways of protecting distribution and transmission equipment, then the grid can be stable.
06:46Brian Ayo, thank you very much for your time.
06:52So while governments around the world spend billions on climate action,
06:57one conflict-affected town in northern Ghana has quietly embraced clean mobility without subsidies or international financing.
07:06Boko's story is a case study in how ordinary people can drive climate action from the ground up.
07:13Peter Adato reports from northern Ghana.
07:17There is something unusual about the streets of Boko in Ghana's Upper East region.
07:23Not the familiar role of petrol engines, but the quiet hum of hand-race of electric motorcycles
07:29weaving through the streets of one of Ghana's most fragile communities.
07:36What began as a response to prolonged security restrictions has quietly evolved into a remarkable grassroot climate solution.
07:46There's no ice lake. It doesn't pollute the air.
07:49Two, the risk of jetting accident is very low.
07:52For riders here, the switch isn't driven by environmental activism, but by survival.
08:02Electric motorcycles are cheaper to operate, easier to maintain, and provide struggling families with a more affordable way to earn
08:11a living.
08:18Boko is emerging as one of Africa's most remarkable examples of community-led clean transportation without government mandates.
08:26The town demonstrates how local innovation can accelerate the transition to cleaner mobility.
08:32Today, electric racing is contributing significantly to our survivors.
08:37There are many people who are doing imputed electric racing from them, and they don't have a traditional motorbike.
08:42They don't accept it.
08:43After residents combine electric transport with environmental campaigns, such as tree planting,
08:48Boko is quietly writing a different climate story.
08:51One, where ordinary people, not policymakers, are leading the way.
08:59Now, China has approved South Africa's Standard Bank and ICBC to clear renminbi transactions across 19 African countries.
09:09The move enables more China-Africa trade, which topped $340 billion in 2025, to be settled directly in the yuan,
09:20reducing reliance on intermediary currencies such as the dollar.
09:24For Africa, the move improves access to yuan settlement channels in China-linked trade,
09:31cutting conversion costs and dollar liquidity shortages in its business with China.
09:36For Beijing, it plays into the strategy to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar in global trade
09:42by widening renminbi-based payment infrastructure through major banking partners.
09:48In 2025, China and Africa traded a record $348 billion in goods, according to China's Customs Authority.
09:58But a lot of this trade was settled in the dollar.
10:02The trade facilitation element is both in terms of time, but also cost.
10:06But another significance here is the geopolitical implication, because on one side you are saying it is attractive to trade
10:15in the yuan,
10:16but we have all seen over the last few years how the U.S. responds to countries abandoning the dollar,
10:24or even the threat when you look at the BRICS story.
10:26So African countries need to be careful in this.
10:30The development aligns with the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System,
10:35an Afrexim Bank-banked initiative to revolutionise cross-border payments and boost intra-African trade.
10:43Analysts say that despite the yuan's growing role, the dollar will retain a key place in global trade.
10:52And that wraps up this episode of Business Africa.
10:56I'm Ronald Cato.
10:57The news continues on air and online.
11:01Bye for now, and I'll see you on the next episode of Business Africa.
11:12Business Africa was presented by Turkish Airlines.
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