Addressing energy security

12 May 2016

Energy Security is one of the key themes to be discussed at WEF Africa. Currently, more than 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) do not have access to electricity, which accounts for approximately 68% of the population.

In June 2013, the United States President Barack Obama launched the Power Africa initiative, which is a partnership between the U.S. Government, African governments, development finance institutions (“DFI’s”) and the private sector, aimed at doubling the access to electricity in SSA. Power Africa provides a platform for all the partners to establish a cohesive approach to addressing energy security in SSA.

In order to achieve the Power Africa goals, the partners aim to increase the installed power capacity in SSA by 30,000MW (currently c.90,000MW installed capacity), and to create 60 million new connections by 2030. To date, US$43 billion in commitments have been received for Power Africa, with US$31 billion and US$ 12 billion committed by the private and public sector respectively.

To date, US$43 billion in commitments have been received for Power Africa, with US$31 billion and US$ 12 billion committed by the private and public sector respectively.

Power Africa received a significant achievement during February 2016, with the U.S. House of Representatives passing the Electrify Africa Act of 2015 (“the Act”), and President Obama signing the Act into law. The Act provides the U.S. government and U.S. public agencies with a clear mandate to support the Power Africa initiative through technical assistance, loans, insurance, grants and other assistance.