The Africa Energy Indaba Conference 2017 will provide a platform that will enable project owners to accelerate the development and implementation of Africa’s high priority renewable energy projects.

NEPAD, the implementing arm of the African Union (AU), will undertake management of the process.

Focused sessions will be held at the conference where national level project owners will be given the opportunity to present their selected projects to potential investors, developers and other interested stakeholders, who would consider funding these projects for further development or implementation.

This will enable developers and financers and strike business deals for either the development of projects to bankability, or financially close the project if it reached bankability.

The first batch of projects will be from the countries that have completed or are in the process of completing the Action Agenda and Investment Prospectus of the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative (SE4All).

NEPAD senior energy advisor, Professor Mosad Elmissiry, said: “This will be the first time that country governments will be showcasing their High Priority Renewable Energy Projects to the open market and looking to attract private sector participation and investment.

“Our role is to facilitate and aid this matchmaking to ensure these projects are developed,” he added. “We believe this is what the private sector has been looking for, opportunities to view new renewable energy project opportunities by the project owners.”

Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative

The SE4All initiative is a multi-stakeholder partnership between governments, the private sector, and civil society. Launched by the United Nations Secretary-General in 2011, it has three interlinked objectives to be achieved by 2030:

1. Ensuring universal access to modern energy services
2. Doubling the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency
3. Doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix

At the core of the SE4All initiative is the concept that access to sustainable energy is not an end in itself, but that increased access to sustainable and modern energy services are key to achieving improvements in most sectors. These include the health, education, economic development, poverty reduction, gender empowerment, environment protection and climate change sectors.

The SE4All Initiative has been welcomed by many African countries based on the understanding that it will advance Africa Priority Energy projects and will be implemented alongside other ongoing national, regional and continental energy initiatives in Africa, such as the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa.

Currently, 44 countries have joined the initiative, majority of which have completed a Rapid Assessment and Gap Analysis. In addition, Action Agendas and Investment Prospectuses are either developed or under development in approximately 17 African countries.

SE4All at the 2017 Africa Energy Indaba

The Africa Energy Indaba will host the SE4All countries that will be showcasing their High Priority Renewable Energy Project Opportunities, identified at country level as the “High Priority Projects” to provide energy to the respective country.

The actual project owners (country government representatives) will be providing the full Investor Prospectus at the Africa Energy Indaba and showcasing the High Priority Project Opportunities to the private sector to consider for investment.

Various African countries will be present to showcase their Investment Prospectus.

Potential investors will have the opportunity to carefully examine each project, enter into one to one discussions with project owners and conclude specific deals with them.

Projects to be presented are at different stages of development, and include those that have finished pre-feasibility and full feasibility studies and are looking for finance for implementation.

The session will be facilitated by NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency.