The United States’ Power Africa initiative — a five-year, $7 billion plan — has opened the doors to the program headquarters in Nairobi. Capital FM reported that of the many U.S. presidential initiatives, Power Africa is the first to be carried out from Africa.

Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, and Tanzania have been singled out as countries that are making impressive strides within the energy sector and thus will benefit from the initiative’s offering. A White House Power Africa fact sheet highlighted a few of the program’s financial backers which include The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), The U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) and The U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im).

Power Africa Coordinator Andrew Herscowitz, expressed through Capital FM that Kenya is gearing up to successfully welcome private investments to benefit power efforts. Herscowitz noted that the sub-Shara’s largest wind park — backed by Aeolus Kenya and CFC Stanbic Bank —  is also located in Kenya.

“The other thing that’s exciting about being here is that we’re located here in the Rift Valley and to be able to meet with people from Tanzania and Ethiopia and other countries and come up with a comprehensive regional strategy to bring more geothermal power online can really be transformational,” he said.

Financial partners and partner countries will reach sustainable power benchmarks by centralizing the use of clean energy as well as resources like oil and gas.

“The billions of dollars available for investment in the energy sector will translate into actual bulbs in people’s homes and electricity necessary to grow small businesses if state utilities run efficiently and effectively. The policy reforms will facilitate and enhance cross-border energy markets,” AfDB President Donald Kaberuka said in a Power Africa release shortly after the initiative was announced in late June.

Through Geothermal projects in Ethiopia and hydro power planning in Tanzania, Power Africa aims to double energy access in the sub-Saharan region. As noted in the White House fact sheet, an 8,000 MW generation project supported by $9 million in private investments has already kicked off.