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Sahara Power reaffirms expansion plans to support energy demand growth in Sub-Saharan Africa
L-R: Director, EMEA, Oil and Gas Council, Pippa Brown, Managing Director, Asharami Energy (A Sahara Group Upstream Company), Olajumoke Ajayi, Group Managing Director, Sahara Power Group, Kola Adesina, Head, Commercial and Business Development, Mariah Lucciano-Gabriel and SVP, Corporate Development, EMEA, Wesley Johnson at the Oil and Gas Council’s Africa Assembly in Paris.
Sahara Power Group’s Managing Director, Kola Adesina has said the company will continue to implement expansion plans through investment in diverse energy mix and partnerships to enhance the capacity of the power sector to meet anticipated energy demand growth in Sub Sahara Africa (SSA).
Adesina who spoke at the Oil and Gas Council’s Africa Assembly in Paris said the SSA region needs to build “robust capacity” to respond to “disruptors” in the energy sector by way of economic growth, rising demand in Africa, shifting energy mix, changes in the market structure and dynamics, growing share of private investment in Power, and in increased Regional Power Pooling.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook reports that SSA growth is set to pick up from 3% percent in 2018 to 3.5% in 2019, before stabilizing at close to 4% over the medium term. About half of the region’s countries are expected to grow at 5% or more, which would see per capita incomes rise faster than the rest of the world on average over the medium term.
“As a foremost energy provider in Sub-Saharan Africa, Sahara Power Group is committed to its target of increasing the Group’s generation capacity to 5,000MW via different energy mix. This, in addition to other innovative interventions across the value chain in the region, is being driven by ongoing investments and partnerships,” he stated.
Sahara Power Group is the largest privately owned vertically integrated power company in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Group comprises including Egbin Power Plc (largest private thermal power plant in SSA), Ikeja Electric (one of the largest privately run power distribution companies in SSA) and First Independent Limited. Sahara Power has five power plants across several locations with capacity totaling 2040MW, with potential for generation into the sub region through the West Africa Power Pool.
Adesina, whose presentation focused on: “In his presentation “Power Sector – Shifting Patterns and Rising Challenges – An Operator’s Perspective”, said amid the expected energy demand growth in the SSA, the sector needs to tackle low electricity access and consumption, low Creditworthiness due to current tariffs, Inadequate Power Infrastructure and Insufficient Regulatory, Policy and Institutional frameworks.
“Half of Africa’s population lives without access to electricity. The industrial sector is responsible for more than two-thirds of SSA’s total energy use. Average Electricity consumption is about 150kWh per capita. Coal is still the largest fuel source for generation in SSA”, he stated.
In Africa, there are changes in the market structure and dynamics in the power sector because of a shift from a centralized, government owned, to private sector participation.
Already, vertical unbundling – the process of ‘unpacking’ integrated utilities into separate generation, transmission and distribution companies have been the preferred option for countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Also, there is the emergence of management contracts, commercialization, IPPs, and electricity regulatory and legislative amendments.
These reforms have had the most significant impact on renewable energy and energy efficiency in the region.
“A key trend is that there is an increase in investment in the power sector by independent power producers (IPPs), private companies and entrepreneurs, as well as development finance institutions (DFIs) speeding up the process of bridging this gap”, Adesina explained.
“There is growing interest in regional power pools across the continent and this could be adopted as a strategy to deal with the unevenly distributed energy resources and Africa’s energy problems. More affordable tariffs and an optimal generation capacity could be developed in the power sector through infrastructure linkages of power utilities and the regional power pools”, he added.
– Sahara Group
Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award (Image: Supplied).
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Shelter Afrique Development Bank (ShafDB) Chief Executive Officer, Thierno Habib Hann, has presented his credentials to Prime Cabinet Secretary of Kenya and Foreign & Diaspora Affairs Minister of Kenya, H.E Dr. Musalia Mudavadi.
In a formal ceremony held at the Prime Cabinet Secretary of Kenya’s office in Nairobi, Mr. Hann conveyed Shelter Afrique Development Bank ‘s commitment to enhancing its collaboration with the Government of Kenya in addressing the pressing challenges of affordable housing and urban development in the country and across Africa.
Mr. Hann highlighted the organization’s commitment to sustaining its impactful efforts in Kenya, particularly in advancing affordable housing programs. Mr. Hann reiterated Shelter Afrique Development Bank ‘s dedication to supporting Kenya’s housing agenda with a particular focus on housing programs that seek to address key thematic areas of climate financing, gender, migrants, refugees, and the diaspora.
“We enjoy a great relationship with the Government of Kenya, being Kenya Shelter Afrique Development Bank ‘s largest shareholder and we are looking forward to scaling up projects that are in line with the visionary economic development agenda – Kenya Vision 2030. We extend our gratitude to the Government of Kenya for their enduring confidence in our institution and for hosting ShafDB’s Headquarters for the last 42 years,” stated Mr. Hann.
He further conveyed Shelter Afrique Development Bank ‘s readiness to collaborate closely with Kenyan authorities in implementing innovative solutions aimed at expediting the provision of quality, affordable housing, and associated infrastructure and urban development across the nation.
Welcoming Mr. Hann and accepting his appointment, Prime Cabinet Secretary Honorable Musalia Mudavadi, commended Shelter Afrique Development Bank for its ongoing transformation and continued commitment to Kenya and further Africa’s development priorities, highlighting the organization’s valuable contributions to the region’s housing sector over the years.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat and N Gage Consulting signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance implementation of the AfCFTA within Africa, with a focus on North Africa and Arabic speaking countries as well as harness the potential of the AfCFTA through targeted outreach towards positive impact in Africa. The MoU was sealed by the AfCFTA Secretary General, H.E. Mr. Wamkele Mene and Mr. Karim Refaat, Chairman of N Gage Consulting and Dr. Sherif Fahmy, CEO.
The was established as an effort to eliminate trade barriers among African countries with the aim of creating a single market size of 1.3 billion people with a combined annual GDP of $3.4 trillion. As the largest free trade area in the world, the AfCFTA is expected to increase intra-African trade and promote regional economic integration of Africa and, as a result, contribute to the sustainable economic and social development of the continent through the creation of employment opportunities and the reduction of poverty.
Pursuant to the MoU, the two parties commit to strengthen cooperation and promote concrete activities in areas of conducting webinars, tailor effective roundtable sessions, public-private dialogues and to develop a series of monthly newsletters to disseminate relevant information through social media platforms with the aim of raising awareness of business and governments on the AfCFTA, its objectives and showcasing AfCFTA’s Guided Trade Initiative and its role in powering trade among members states.
Additionally, the collaboration will facilitate the preparation for the AfCFTA Business Forum and The Intra African Trade Fair (IATF) and the execution of different capacity building programs for the member states in order to leverage the AfCFTA to boost intra-African trade and utilise Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects to support investment in infrastructure.
The MoU is expected to promote the AfCFTA as a trade liberalisation instrument and sustainable development enabler and accelerator as well as enhance intra-African trade as an engine for economic diversification and industrialisation.
As one of the leading companies operating in the area of government relations and public policy in the MENA region, N Gage Consulting is committed to support the AfCFTA and will deploy all the necessary resources to strengthen and expand cooperation with the AfCFTA Secretariat to enhance African trade integration.
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