Africa > Energy

Energy in Africa

  • How to boost private sector investment in Africa’s electricity infrastructure

    BOTSWANA, 2017/06/15 A new World Bank statement has called for increased private sector investment in Africa’s under-developed electricity transmission infrastructure, a vital ingredient for reaching Africa’s energy goals. The statement which was made available to the Ghana News Agency on Thursday by the World Bank indicated that Africa lags behind the rest of the world at the same time as it comes to electricity, with just 35 % of the people with access to power and a generation capacity of only 100 GW. According to the statement those who do have power typically consume relatively little, face frequent outages and pay high prices.
  • Africa among continents with faster electrification growth rates as more people have access globally

    WORLD, 2017/06/15 The number of people with access to electricity around the world has increased, according to a briefing paper by the US Energy Data Government (EIA). The EUA indicates that the rate of electrification grew the fastest from 1994 to 2014 in Africa, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia. “Investments to increase electricity access have significant implications for economic development and quality of life inclunding the energy consumption and energy-related emissions for each country,” it adds.
  • EU Gives Tanzania U.S.$200 Million to Develop Energy Sector

    EUROPEAN UNION, 2017/06/06 The European Union, through the Energy for Increase and Sustainable Development programme, has given Tanzania €180 million ($200 million) to develop its energy sector. The bloc, working with the German Development Bank (KfW) and the French Agency for Improvment(AFD), is funding a €42 million ($47 million) electrification project in northwestern Tanzania, covering the Kagera, Geita and Kigoma Regions.
  • Nigeria rolling out investment incentives to improve power generation

    NIGERIA, 2016/12/25 Three years next the start of Nigeria’s power privatisation programme, the government is looking to burnish the attractiveness of the sector by providing a range of new incentives and guarantees. Extending partial risk guarantees In November the World Bank and national-owned Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) signed a partial risk guarantee (PRG) agreement for integrated gas company Seven Energy to supply 3.7m cu metres of gas to the $500m Calabar gas plant in Calabar City, as part of a number of deals expected to add 500 MW to the national grid.
  • William Amuna, CEO, Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), on infrastructure

    GHANA, 2016/12/24 What are the priorities for GRIDCo in terms of investment maintenance and upgrades? WILLIAM AMUNA: If you look at Ghana, around 85% of the people has reliable access to electricity. A major reason for this is a widespread energy network spread across all 10 regions within the country, and there are plans to improve infrastructure to additional districts. Significantly extending transmission is an achievable target, which will be helped by the construction of backbones or major transmission lines.
  • Cyprus, Egypt sign gas export pipeline deal

    CYPRUS, 2016/09/01 Cyprus and Egypt signed a transaction on Wednesday paving the way for detailed negotiations on a submarine pipeline to export natural gas from the Mediterranean island to its energy-starved neighbour. Cyprus has been eager to fasten alternative ways to exploit its offshore reserves next proven finds so far were insufficient to make a planned liquefied natural gas plant on the island's south coast financially viable. Cyprus Energy Minister Georgios Lakkotrypis, and Egypt's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla signed the agreement clearing the way for further negotiations on construction of the pipeline from offshore fields in Cyprus's exclusive economic zone to Egypt, where the gas will be used either for domestic consumption or re-export.
  • Treasury disputes Eskom claims on Gupta-linked firm

    SOUTH AFRICA, 2016/08/30 The national treasury said Eskom wrongly stated that coal supply contracts between itself and Tegeta Exploration and Resources had been audited by the finance ministry and has ignored queries regarding the company. Tegeta is part owned by the Gupta family, who are friends with President Jacob Zuma and are in business with his son. Treasury is reviewing Eskom’s coal contracts.
  • Gabon: Slump in oil prices hurting livelihoods

    GABON, 2016/08/27 There’s growing dissent in Gabon’s second city of Port-Gentil ahead of the presidential election on Saturday. Being Gabon’s economic capital, the city has been hit by a slump in oil prices, which have impacted on businesses and livelihoods of a lot of. “For us, we started in 2004 with additional than 500 employees, today we have been hit by additional than a 75 % workforce reduction,” says Mboko Mavoungou, director of ECM.
  • Is Sonangol Helping Move Isabel Dos Santos Toward Angolan Presidency?

    ANGOLA, 2016/07/26 The appointment of Isabel dos Santos as CEO of the Angolan state oil company Sonangol is very much justifiable. She is Africa’s richest woman, and an astute businesswoman. The 43-year old tycoon made a go at business with the opening of Luanda’s Miami Beach restaurant. Today, she is worth $3.3 billion, and sits on the boards — and owns considerable shares — in some of the biggest companies in Angola and Portugal. All in all, the woman is the youthful, established, and market-ensuring CEO that a smart president should appoint to govern a state oil company.
  • Barack Obama’s Power Africa initiative makes slow progress

    UNITED STATES, 2016/07/25 Crumbling, mismanaged energy systems have long been an oppressive brake on economic increase in the region’s 49 nations, which have less grid-connected electricity than South Korea and about 600m power-starved people. However, three years next Mr Obama promised to bring “light where currently there is darkness” and “clean energy to protect our planet”, evolution on the ground is proving painfully slow. The Power Africa programme, which the president launched in 2013, is supposed to add 30,000 megawatts of electricity by 2030, equal to nearly a third of sub-Saharan Africa’s existing generating capacity.