Africa conference calls for policies to support energy infrastructure investment

The 'Africa Energy Indaba', a major conference on the region's energy future held in Johannesburg on 17 and 18 February, called for “increased access to finance for the implementation of energy projects and policies that support investment and help reduce risk”.

The chairman of the World Energy Council (WEC) Marie-Jose Nadeau told the conference: “You need energy for health care, education, agriculture and information and communications technology. You can’t unlock Africa’s vast potential without energy.”

WEC secretary-general Christoph Frei, said an ongoing power crisis in South Africa “illustrates that South Africa, like many other countries, is struggling to come to terms with the triple challenge of providing sustainable energy, what the WEC calls the ‘energy trilemma’.”

According to the WEC’s World Energy Issues Monitor, “African energy leaders are worried about the uncertain impact of energy price volatility on their future decisions. Market-distorting energy subsidies and the difficult access to capital markets are also key issues. Meanwhile, regional integration and energy poverty remain high in the agenda.”

Head of energy at the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), Mosad Elmissiry, said: “Africa only generates 4% of global electricity, our main goal as NEPAD is to increase energy access to modern clean energy resources through the implementation of various energy projects as well as improve the utilisation of Africa’s vast energy resources.”

Elmissiry said NEPAD’s infrastructure development programme for Africa (PIDA), launched in 2010, is working through a “planning and programming” framework to guide infrastructure development investment for all Africa from 2011 to 2030. The PIDA budget, estimated at €7.8 million, is financed by the European Union, Islamic Development Bank, the African Fund for Water and NEPAD.

In March 2014, the African Development Bank welcomed the launch of the African Renewable Energy Fund (AREF) as an example of how private investment can be channelled to a key development sector. AREF, a dedicated renewable energy fund focused on sub-Saharan Africa, closed on 12 March with $100m of committed capital to support small- to medium-scale independent power producers.

A report published this year by the World Bank (173-page / 6.19 MB PDF) said mining companies could play a key role in harnessing Africa’s “abundant clean sources of energy” to overcome energy supply shortages and develop the region’s power infrastructure.

Earlier this month, a $1.9 billion “pan-African renewable energy generation platform” was launched to boost electricity production across the region within the next three years through investments in new wind and solar plants.