Though the 2018 Africa Investment Forum (AIF) in Johannesburg has come and gone, more positive outcomes are still emerging.
Latest in the row is the good plan of the African Development Bank (AfDB) to launch the Africa Energy Portal (AEP) designed to deepen exchange of ideas and innovations by African economies on electricity sector development.
Business Hilights gathered that the AEP portal, hosted at http://Africa-Energy-Portal.org, will among other things consolidate, validate, and disseminate energy data and insights across Africa’s energy value chain, covering generation, transmission, distribution, regulation and policy.
The portal is structured to address a lack of information in the sector, by providing a one-stop-shop for accurate, reliable, relevant, and up-to-date information on energy in Africa. This will include statistics on investment flows and deals, as well as the socio-economic outcomes of power projects.
In his remarks, Amadou Hott, Vice President of Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth at the AfDB averred that “Many international and local stakeholders have experienced the data access and reliability challenges that hold back substantive participation in the numerous opportunities within Africa’s energy sector. The AEP is strategically positioned to resolve these challenges, by providing stakeholders with the requisite information to facilitate decision making, and fast track investments and initiatives that will revolutionise Africa’s energy sector.”
In addition to being an information repository, the AEP will also provide an interactive platform for knowledge-sharing amongst Africa’s energy sector stakeholders and experts. It will serve as a virtual space for engagement, and progressive dialogue on pertinent issues affecting the development of the continent’s energy and power infrastructure.
Speaking during the launch, Wale Shonibare, Director of Energy Financial Solutions, Policy and Regulation at the African Development Bank lauded the AEP as a long-overdue, but necessary, step in “providing critical information for investment decisions, policy making, and regulatory action in Africa’s energy sector.”
On the essence of the partnerships, Shonibare welcomed collaboration from external stakeholders.
He stressed that “We are aware that the portal’s success will depend on extensive collaboration, and we invite professionals, developers, investors, regulators, governments, financial institutions, statisticians, utility companies, think tanks, philanthropic institutions and other stakeholders to work with us in creating a robust and formidable platform for the continent”.
The AEP will leverage the bank’s energy sector and statistical expertise in order to consolidate and generate verified data and statistics on Africa’s energy sector. The bank also aims to collaborate with regional organisations, and in-country statistics agencies to develop data collection and validation procedures to improve the quality of publicly available information on the continent’s energy sector.
Analysts agreed that the AIF, hosted by the African Development Bank, is an unprecedented marketplace platform bringing together pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, capital markets, project sponsors, institutional and financial investors.
