The African Development Bank (AfDB) has unveiled a new initiative aimed at solving the region’s huge energy deficit by 2025.
The "New Deal for Energy in Africa" focuses on mobilizing support and funding from five key areas, including the bank itself, to drive critical policy and regulatory reforms of the energy sector to improve incentives for accelerated investments.
"A lot of financing will be needed," said AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina. "Together, we must close the $55 billion financing gap for energy in sub-Saharan Africa. And we must raise our level of commitment to meet the $22 billion needed to support universal access to energy in the region."
While the AfDB has pledged to significantly expand its support towards energy in Africa, development partners would also be obliged to scale up on-going efforts. In addition, the deal also calls for countries to expand their share of financing going into the energy sector and demonstrate stronger political will to implement energy policy.
Adesina also illustrated how domestic resource mobilization would play a crucial role by leveraging on just ten per cent of the continent’s tax revenues estimated at $500 billion per year. He also said that ending the over $60 billion annual illicit financial flows out of Africa would help, and called for the development of major regional energy projects such as the Inga dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo.