daniel chigunwe
On the sidelines of the Africa Energy Forum in Nairobi, the African Development Bank and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through the Power Africa Presidential Initiative, signed an extension and expansion of their current Regional Development Objectives Agreement (RDOAG).
The action increases the foundation for collaboration in the development of creative and sustainable solutions to tackle energy poverty, and climate change, and enhance energy systems in sub-Saharan Africa.
It also deepens the strategic relationship. The pact specifically aims to eliminate energy poverty by 2030, speed up the just energy transition in Africa, and improve the favourable climate for renewable energy.
The five-year extension, which runs through September 2028, opens the door for potential future US contributions of up to US$500 million to support RDOAG’s goals.
The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) and the African Development Bank’s Desert to Power programme have received direct funding through the RDOAG to date, totaling around US$388 million.
The partnership will also be able to help the public, commercial, civil society, and other stakeholders financially, technically, and operationally through grants, equity and debt investments, and risk-reduction strategies.
Acting Co-ordinator for Power Africa David Thompson emphasised the importance of partnerships in advancing and sustaining the fair energy transition during the signing ceremony at the Africa Energy Forum.
“The importance of our partnership with the AfDB, as evidenced through this agreement, in achieving our shared ambition of universal access to energy cannot be overemphasised. We effectively leverage one another’s strengths to accomplish much more jointly than either institution could do on its own,” he said.
The Power Africa Strategic Framework, the Bank Group’s New Deal on Energy for Africa, and Sustainable Development Goal 7 are all concerned with ensuring that everyone has access to cheap, dependable, sustainable, and modern energy.
Activities carried out under the enlarged agreement will support these goals. Partnerships are crucial, as Dr Daniel Schroth, Director of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency at the African Development Bank, who signed the extension on behalf of the Bank’s Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate, and Green Growth, emphasised.
According to Schroth, “Power Africa is a long-standing and key partner of the African Development Bank, and a central pillar of our collaboration focuses on mobilising increased private sector investments, which are quintessential to achieving our joint objectives of universal access to energy and a just energy transition in Africa.” — Business Insider
Bongani Ndlovu