Power Africa set to Boost double access to power in Sub-Saharan Africa

Last Updated 13 years ago by Kenya Engineer

On Sunday, President Barack Obama stated that the U.S. government would spend at least $7 billion to ‘Power Africa’; a new initiative to double access to power in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Kenya is amongst the listed African Nations set for the project including: Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Tanzania. This will be made possible boosted by U.S. private sector partners: the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC); the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im); The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC); U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) and the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF).

It is expected that President Obama’s $7 billion pledge will help combat the frequent power blackouts prevalent in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Funds from the initiative are set to be distributed over the next five years.

According to a press release from the White House, “Sub-Saharan Africa will require more than $300 billion in investment to achieve universal electricity access by 2030.  Only with greater private sector investment can the promise of Power Africa be realized.  With an initial set of six partner countries in its first phase, Power Africa will add more than 10,000 megawatts of cleaner, more efficient electricity generation capacity,” read the statement citing the International Energy Agency.

According to the statement, OPIC and USAID are set to jointly host an African energy and infrastructure investment conference in 2014. The Objectives being:  to bring investors, developers, and companies together with U.S. and African government officials so as to demonstrate the opportunities for investment and the tools and resources available from the U.S. government and other partners to support investment.

The program will influence private sector investments from: the African Finance Corporation intends to invest $250 million in the power sectors of Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria; Aldwych International commited to developing 400 MW of clean, wind power in Kenya and Tanzania; Harith General Partners commits to $70 million in investment for clean, wind energy in Kenya and $500 million across the African power sector via a new fund amid other private companies.

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