Africa Energy Forum kicks off in Istanbul

The 16th annual Africa Energy Forum (AEF) kicked off Wednesday in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
The three-day event which is attended by experts and government officials of the African countries will discuss ways of delivering power infrastructure projects to Africa to solve its electricity shortage crisis.
"The demand is very high in power generation, transmission and distribution," Edward Njoroge, the honorary chairman of the forum, said during his opening speech.
Africa has been suffering significant power infrastructure problem. More than 590 million Africans representing 57 percent of the 1 billion of population still have no access to electricity, according to the data provided in the Africa Energy Yearbook 2014.
The experts agreed that the demand for electricity in sub- Saharan Africa is growing fast-driven primarily by economic growth while the production capacity has developed very little since 1990.
In 2013, more than 900 government representatives and credible power developers and investors attended the AEF. The figure is expected to hit 1,000 participants this year.