News Release 97
African Union Modernization Plan
January 3, 2015 (revised)

The Africa is home to 1.2 billion people that live on 30 million square kilometers of land. The Africa Union represents 54 of the 55 countries that are located in North, Southern, East, West and Central regions of the continent. Africa people speaks numerous languages and has 42 different currencies. There is an estimated 600 million people are living in poverty with no electricity.

African Union should have a Modernization Plan that is modeled after China's Modernization Plan to bring over 300 million people into the 21st century in the next twelve years. The key areas are energy, transportation, buildings & homes, water, and public services. Government, businesses, non-for-profit organizations, and academia leaders would be invited to Africa to help build cities, schools, and factories for manufacturing consumer and industrial produces in Africa rather than sell their natural resources to other countries.

Leadership will be needed to developed and implement the African Modernization Plan. The African Union could be governed similar to the European Union. Africa will need to have centralized banking system and a common currency for conducting international commerce. Africa Union may want to benchmarked their economic progress after China.

Africa will needs an estimated 300 clean power plants that generate electricity, electricity, make petrochemicals from coal, biomass, & oil, manufacture consumer & industrial products, desalt seawater for domestic drinking water and irrigating crops, and split water directly into hydrogen & oxygen for industrial applications. Each power plant would generate 10 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year.  

The 300 clean power plants would generate 3 trillion kilowatt hours (3,000 Terawatt-hours) of electricity and distributed to meet the Africa's energy need. At ten cents per kilowatt-hour, the revenues would be  $300 billion per year. The Africa Energy Outlook contains a small fraction of Africa Union's energy needs.

Better utilization of Africa's natural resources turns scarcities into surpluses. Coal, oil, and biomass are turned into petrochemicals for making consumers and industrial products rather than burning them and destroying Earth's environment. Carbon dioxide emissions would be less than two metric tons per person. .

The African Union Modernization Plan would bring 300 million people into the 21st century. If government, academia, and business leaders work together, Africa�s Economy grows from $2.4 trillion to over $8 trillion. The Moderization Plan would be replicated for another 300 million people. However, the real benefits come from taking millions of people out of poverty, providing them the opportunity to have a world-class education, and empowering them to fulfill their dreams.