By: Leandi Kolver

The African hub of the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative was aiming to have assisted 14 countries on the continent in developing energy action agendas and investment prospectuses by the end of this year, the African Union’s (AU’s) New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) Planning and Coordinating Agency, or NPCA, head Professor Mosad Elmissiry said on Wednesday.

The SE4ALL African hub is coordinated by the AU Commission, the NPCA, the African Development Bank, the United Nations Development Program, and members of regional economic communities.

Speaking at a briefing ahead of the 2015 Africa Energy Indaba briefing , Elmissiry noted that 43 of the 84 countries that opted to join SE4ALL, which aimed to provide all people with energy access by 2030, while also doubling the share of renewable energy and the rate of energy efficiency in participating countries, were African.

Countries that had opted in to the SE4ALL programme had to undergo a gap analysis, which then had to be used to come up with a solution to bridge the gaps identified through national action plans and programmes, he explained.

The 14 African countries currently being assisted by the SE4ALL African hub were Burkina Faso, Burundi, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda.

Elmissiry said the NPCA had specific responsibility for Gambia and Kenya, stating that the draft action agendas and investment prospectuses for these countries had already been completed.

These documents would now go through a consultation process with validation workshops set to take place mid-November.

Once these documents had been completed, the countries’ energy projects would be taken to international investors for consideration.

AFRICA ENERGY INDABA

Also speaking at the briefing, South African National Energy Association chairperson Brian Statham noted that research had shown that, despite all the talk about Africa’s energy future, the continent was not progressing with the rest of the world.

He pointed out that only four African countries provided more than 50% of the population with access to reliable electricity, while only two African countries had a per capita energy consumption higher than the world average.

“[In South Africa specifically] we consider ourselves sophisticated in African terms but 20% of people do not have access to energy supply,” he noted.

He said the Africa Energy Indaba team believed that, for Africa to effectively deal with its challenges, African solutions driven by African people had to be found, adding that this was the aim of the indaba – to unlock African solutions.

“Without access to electricity you cannot have decent healthcare, education or commercial enterprises,” he said, adding that ways had to be found to enable Africans to help themselves, as opposed to relying on handouts.