The goal of the U.S.-Africa leaders Summit was to strengthen America’s financial foothold in Africa by shifting U.S. ties with Africa beyond humanitarian aid toward more economic partnerships.
President Barack Obama announced $33 billion in new commitments during the Business Forum on Tuesday, Aug. 5 with the bulk of the commitments from private-sector companies. That figure rose to $37 billion when Obama announced last minute additional funding at a press conference on Aug. 6.
And the big winner was Africa’s energy sector with $14 billion in new pledges from the private sector and government institutions – amounting to $300 million per year – to help expand Africa’s electric power infrastructure through the Power Africa initiative, which currently combines the efforts of 12 U.S. government agencies and 40 private companies.
The new announcements during the Summit brings the total funding of the program to more than $26 billion in direct financing and investment guarantees, according to the White House.
Power Africa’s initial goal was to add more than 10,000 megawatts of new, cleaner electricity generation capacity and increasing electricity access to 20 million household and business connections.
On the opening day of the Summit, the first-ever Power Africa annual report was released which notes that during the first year the initiative had already reached 25 percent of its overall megawatt goals and the $7 billion public investment has so far leveraged $18 billion in private capital.
“The private sector has shown tangible support for Power Africa through more than $18 billion in commitments by 39 companies, including $1 billion in commitments to the Beyond the Grid initiative by an additional 27 impact investors, developers and distributors of off-grid and small-scale energy solutions,” states the annual report.
Now, one year later,the Power Africa goal has increased to add 30,000 megawatts of additional electricity capacity and expand access to 60 million households and businesses.
And, a year later, those projects are reaching beyond the six focus countries -Tanzania, Liberia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya – normally associated with Power Africa.
“There are the six focus countries, but there has always been an interest to support Power Africa broadly throughout Africa, even though there may not be the same level of attention,” Shari Berenbach, President and CEO of the U.S. African Development Foundation told AFKInsider.
“I think the choice of six countries was primarily strategic in a lot of ways,” Stephen Hayes, President and CEO of the Corporate Council on Africa told AFKInsider. “I think from the administration’s point of view it would like to focus on certain countries and make it successful and then move on to other countries.”
The Corporate Council on Africa is the designated private sector facilitator for both the U.S. Power Africa and Trade Africa initiatives.
“I think every one of the companies that are looking at power in Africa, are looking at where the opportunity exists beyond the six countries. If Power Africa is really going to be done by the private sector, it’s only limited by the amount of investment that the power sector wants to put in,” Hayes told AFKInsider.
“The administration doesn’t limit where you invest and, in fact, that’s why we had Cote d’Ivoire on the panel of the Power Africa lunch.”
That Power Africa lunch panel took place Monday, Aug. 4, during the Corporate Council on Africa’s all-day Business Forum and included a keynote speech by Elizabeth L. Littlefield, Overseas Private Investment Corporation’s (OPIC) President and CEO.
As an example of working outside the six Power Africa focus countries, the U.S. Export-Import Bank announced a $17 million loan guarantee for the West African Development Bank, to support long-term financing for the expansion of the Azito Power project in Cote d’Ivoire from 290 to 420 megawatts.
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation also works outside the six Power Africa focus countries.
“To be clear, the Power Africa countries – those six countries that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has special focus for regulatory advisory capacity – those are the focus countries, they’re not the Power Africa countries,” Overseas Private Investment Corporation spokesperson Charles Stadtlander told AFKInsider. “OPIC’s work is definitely across sub-Saharan Africa in supporting Power Africa.”
OPIC did announce projects for the core Power Africa countries, including $50 million to support construction and operation of the 459-megawatt gas-fired Azura-Edo power plant in Edo State, Nigeria.
The project represents the first phase of a potential 1,000-megawatt power plant and is the first independent power producer in Nigeria in 10 years following recent power sector reforms. American Capital Energy & Infrastructure committed $130 million for the project, as well as future projects in Nigeria.
OPIC had also approved $250 million in financing to support the development, construction, and operation of a 310-megawatt wind power project near Lake Turkana, Kenya. When completed, it will be the largest wind energy project in Africa.
But during the Summit, OPIC also announced the second round of funding worth $10 million for the Africa Clean Energy Finance Initiative,a partnership launched two years ago by OPIC, the State Department, and U.S. Trade and Development Agency to provide early-stage funding to leverage larger private sector investment in clean energy projects across all of Sub-Saharan Africa.
In the first round last year, the Africa Clean Energy Finance Initiative supported more than 25 projects across ten African countries – beyond the six Power Africa countries, including Rwanda, Namibia and Senegal.
Summit Energy Announcements
During the U.S.-Africa leaders Summit’s various events, a number of other new and recent Power Africa transactions were highlighted, though some had been previously announced:
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.”