Productive uses of energy: A solution for promoting energy justice in rural areas in West Africa

The rural populations of West Africa are victims of energy injustice, for most of them do not have access to electricity and use very inefficient cooking systems that negatively impact their health and the environment. This study aims to investigate the status of access to energy in rural areas in three West African countries and to identify productive activities that could be developed based on available and accessible energy resources. Thus, surveys were conducted among 2291 rural households, including 640 in Benin, 1001 in Senegal and 650 in Togo. The information was collected using CSPro 6.3 software, cleaned with STATA software and analyzed using Microsoft Office EXCEL 2013 software. The analysis of the findings of the surveys was enriched by typical examples of rural energy enterprises in Mali, Senegal and Nigeria. The findings of the surveys showed that the main source of electricity in rural areas is the non-rechargeable dry cell battery for almost 50% of households and 25% are connected to the grid. The available energy resources reported are solar (89.3%), biomass (73.5%) and agricultural residues (39.5%). The economic activities carried out by households in rural West Africa are essentially agricultural, pastoralism (53.7%) and trade (18.0%). Typical examples of rural enterprises as part of electrification activities which integrate the development of productive activities are presented. This approach allows the populations to have income and cover their electricity consumption bills. This work will continue with the simulation of rural enterprises envisioned in the agriculture and livestock sector in West Africa.