Besides Mozambique (the only Portuguese-speaking country), Cameroon, Guinea-Conakry, Kenya, and Tunisia were other countries that stood out in the recently concluded Africa Energy Marketplace.
The event brought together governments, the private sector, and development partners to highlight strategic projects and key reforms in the energy sector. The countries' proposals also emphasized, among their main priorities, the deepening of the renewable resources dimension.
The five African countries, betting for renewables, stood out by presenting important investment proposals.
Africa Energy Market Place is a collaborative investment platform created by the African Development Bank (AfDB) as part of the New Deal on Energy for Africa, the transformative partnership to lighten up and power Africa, in line with the AfDB's 5 strategic priorities.
The theme of the fifth Africa Energy Marketplace, held virtually recently, focused on identifying opportunities across the energy value chain: "Solving bottlenecks and unlocking investments in Cameroon, Guinea, Kenya, Mozambique, and Tunisia.
Mozambique
António Saíde, CEO of FUNAE (Mozambique Energy Fund) announced that the government had recently launched the first call for applications for green mini-grid initiatives under the BRILHO program.
This program aims to accelerate the "off-grid" energy market in Mozambique by providing selected companies with a unique combination of structured, non-reimbursable financing and expert technical support to lower business model risk and achieve competitive commercial returns as well as provide "off-grid" energy solutions for low-income markets.
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Cameroon announced that it had launched an agency to manage the public electricity transmission system, the National Electricity Transmission Company, or SONATREL, to support its vision of attracting investment of about $10.6 billion to achieve its energy goals.
"If we are able to develop robust transmission infrastructure, we should be able to achieve universal access to electricity," said Gaston Eloundou Essomba, the country's Minister of Water and Energy, as quoted by African Markets.
The planned energy mix in Cameroon is 80% hydro, 14% gas, and 6% solar, wind and biomass.
Guinea-Conakry
Sékou Sanfina Diakite, Secretary General of Guinea Conakry's Ministry of Energy, said that his country is poised to become an electricity trading center in the region, thanks to different interconnection projects currently under construction in the country. The country intends to become completely dependent on hydro and solar energy.
Guinea-Conakry's goal is to export electricity in the sub-region, outlining the plan launched by the West African Energy Pool to establish Guinea-Conakry Electricity as the transmission system operator for the region's Zone 5, which includes Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Kenya
In the discussions on Kenya, central issues included the need to urgently rebalance risks in power purchase agreements that have resulted in high tariffs for end users, calls for accelerated reforms, and models for generalizing access to electricity.
Mark Carrato, program coordinator Power Africa of USAID, said Kenya had the potential to attract diverse sources of investment. "An essential transmission line with a higher return would attract national pension funds, and there are loads of money out there that we haven't tapped enough."
Tunisia
Further north, the Tunisian Solar Plan has become a key part of Tunisia's recovery plans.
"It is imperative to restore Tunisia's energy independence, as the country has witnessed growing - and expensive - deficits in its energy balance over the past two decades," said Belhassen Chiboub, the director-general of the energy ministry.
To address this, the government launched the Tunisian Solar Plan in 2017 and set a target of 3.8GW for total installed renewable energy capacity by 2030, which is equivalent to increasing capacity tenfold, at an estimated annual cost of around $400 million.
Source: MA