Abel Rugaju runs RAN power, a
social enterprise in Uganda that is dedicated to extending power to offgrid
rural communities by building small hydropower plants. Lois Gicheru is the
founder of Solarfrique, a start-up that is dedicated to installing solar panels
in Kenya’s rural areas
“We are targeting
rural offgrid areas because they suffer most from energy poverty, government
efforts to extend modern energy services have been concentrated in urban areas
yet the majority population is rural based ,”she says.
These were some of
the young enthusiastic energy entrepreneurs from Africa at the Second
Stakeholder Forum of the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP) that are trying to
scale up clean energy access to the 620 million sub-Saharan Africans living without access to
electricity.
The event,which took
place on the 16th and 17th of may at the Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI)
in Milan ,Italy was organized by the
Italian Government, the African Union Commission (AUC), and the European Union
Commission (EUC). Under the theme of Business and Science: Leading the Way to
Sustainable Energy, the event brought together African and European Ministers,
AU and EU Commissioners, and more than 500 other high-level participants
representing policy-makers, regional institutions, international organizations,
the banking and finance industry, the private sector, academia, civil society
and the media.
Discussions centered
around investment in energy infrastructure, partnerships for on-the-ground
implementation, as well as influencing energy and climate policy to provide an
enabling framework for stakeholders to accelerate the delivery of post-COP21
results .
“African governments
need to develop favorable policy and regulatory conditions to increase investments
and empower energy entrepreneurs to scale up their delivery of clean energy .
Uganda has created an enabling environment for private sector investments in
the energy sector,” said Hon.Irene Muloni, Uganda’s energy minister.
There was shared concern around a few key policy issues and some that were most frequently cited were:
- Three
challenges remain for the private sector: regulation, operational risk and
stable revenue. There is need to link private energy investors with finance
- Community
involvement and participation should be at the heart of energy projects.
Project developers need innovative financing mechanisms in order to cater for
the needs of the rural poor and should to raise awareness on the opportunities in
clean energy access.
- Women
are at the center of society and their participation in the energy sector is
vital .Energy project developers need to engender their approach and more
action is still required in terms of cooking energy.
- There
many initiatives on the continent in support for rapidly achieving
near-universal access to clean energy services. However a lot must be done to
deliver on these initiatives.
“Africa has enormous
potential of renewable energy sources but energy poverty prevails, concerted
effort is needed from all stakeholders for concrete project investments,” said
H.E. Dr. Elham Ibrahim, Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, African
Union
The consensus was
clear, Africa is not going to be able to deal with its energy crisis by itself
and everyone has to get involved to deliver a sustainable energy future for the
continent.
