Rising from the recent gathering of African energy leaders at the launch of the Africa Progress Panel Report titled, ‘Lights, Power, Action: Electrifying Africa’, the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), has given indications that it will invest about $12 billion under its new deal with ‘Energy for Africa’, in the next five years.
Other side attractions of the emerging deal include connecting about 130 million households through the grid, 75 million people through off-grid and provide some 130 million households with access to clean cooking energy.
Explaining more at the event in Cote d’voire, President of the Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, observed that the electricity deficit in Africa is immense, adding, “Today, 645 million people do not have access to electricity”.
According to him, “The continent has an abundant supply of solar, hydropower, wind and geothermal potential, as well as significant amount of natural gas and in some countries coal deposits. Africa has energy potential, yes, but we need to unlock that potential. And we must do so quickly because Africans are tired of being in the dark.”
The former Nigerian Minister of Agriculture told delegates that he drew inspiration from the panel’s previous report in developing the Bank’s High 5 development priorities, which place energy as the top priority, and which has, through the Bank’s New Deal on Energy for Africa, committed to investing $12 billion in energy in the next five years and leveraging $45-50 billion from the private sector and other partners.
