During the Summit, the Power Africa Off-Grid Challenge, jointly funded by the U.S. African Development Foundation, GE, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, announced some of the winners of their second round of $100,000 grants, with the first three awards targeting Liberia.

“We’re going to be making 18 to 20 awards all together, including the three to Liberia, and the majority of them will come out in September,” Shari Berenbach, President and CEO of the U.S. African Development Foundation told AFKInsider.

“There was a lot of interest from the U.S. government more broadly about what do we have ready to announce and we were very cautious about offering to announce all of the winners because the whole review and due diligence process is quite extensive,” Berenbach told AFKInsider.

Instead, what they did was fast-track the Liberian review ahead of the others because the energy situation in that country was so dire, according to Berenbach.

“And off-grid solutions have been a high priority for [the Liberian] government,” Berenbach told AFKInisder.

The three Liberian companies each receiving the $100,000 grants to building solar mini-grids include:

Alternative Energy Inc., which will serve Galama Town, an isolated rural area 225 miles from the capitol, by bringing electricity to 90 households, a school, a health clinic, and several small shops.

Outside Monrovia, Ecovillage Community Improvement Association will serve its low- and middle-income clients, as well as over 100 homes, small businesses and kiosks.  Partner Ecovillage Homes Inc. has also leveraged funding from OPIC and domestic and foreign investors.

Liberia Engineering and Geo-Tech Consultants will reach 50 households, small businesses, a school, and a health clinic north of Monrovia.

Beyond Power Africa

Dozens of meetings took place alongside the main 3-day Summit event where other energy deals and strategies were discussed.

One noteworthy meeting took place on Sunday, Aug. 3 – the eve of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit – where Millennium Challenge Corporation CEO Dana J. Hyde, and Overseas Private Investment Corporation President and CEO Elizabeth L. Littlefield co-chaired a roundtable discussion that brought together ministers from Morocco, Tanzania, Liberia, and Lesotho with business leaders from GE Africa, BlackRhino Capital Management, Standard Bank, Endeavor, American Capital Energy & Infrastructure, and Kupanda Capital.

The closed-door discussion focused on strategies for attracting more private sector energy investment and “aligning their risk perceptions that each of them brings to African power deals.”

“The significant take away is that it was a frank and open exchange of ideas,”

Overseas Private Investment Corporation spokesperson Stadtlander told AFKInsider.

“And if you think of it in that sense, it’s a pretty important discussion for the two parties who don’t always meet behind closed doors. And I think the importance of it was that is was a closed-door meeting and they could speak pretty openly about which hurdles each one of them uniquely face in a way that they couldn’t if they were on a panel discussion on stage,” Stadtlander told AFKInsider.

The Power Africa annual report notes:“As Power Africa enters its second year, it will seek to incorporate lessons learned since its launch. Opportunities exist for augmented and specialized transaction advisory support, greater commercial engagement and trade ties with U.S. businesses, broader regional geographic focus within sub-Saharan Africa, and partnership with new donors, financial institutions, private sector partners, and governments.”

“It’s easy to try to total-up all the megawatts and all the numbers of projects, and it’s important to note that projects can be measured in capacity and the institutional knowledge to create these projects,” says OPIC’s Stadtlander. “The megawatts are important, the access is important, but the systems that we’re helping to put in place are just as important as well.”