By Oke Peter
The 20th anniversary of the prestigious energy summit, Africa Energy Forum (AEF) has been rounded off on Friday, after four days of panel discussions and networking functions focused on Africa’s energy sector. More than 1,500 delegates attended the event which took place between 19th and 22nd June, 2018, at the Paradis and Dinarobin Beachcomber Hotels, Mauritius.
Accordingly, several announcements from the sector took place at the event. These included the launch of the Electricity Regulatory Index (ERI) by the African Development Bank (AfDB), which measures the level of development of an African country’s electricity regulatory sector. Also the International Finance Corporation (IFC) signed a $34 million financing agreement with Enel, IDC and EIB for the construction of 34 MW Ngonye Solar Plant in Zambia, as part of their IFC/World Bank Scaling Solar Initiative.
Also, the organiser of the event, EnergyNet Limited conferred award on individuals and organisations that have contributed positively to the development of energy sector in Africa. Recipients of the ‘Special Recognition Award’ include the President and Chief Executive Officer of Consultancy Dell’Amore International Limited, Alhaji Idris Mohammed; a Ghanaian Ministry of Energy official, Wiliam Amuna; Amadou Hott of the African Development Bank (AfDB); Chris Weston of Aggreko; Jason Harlan of Fieldstone Africa; Scott Mackin of Denham Capital and Lucy Chege from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) among others.
Globeleq also signed a joint development agreement with Mozambique’s EDM to progress the 400 MW gas-fired power project located at Temane in Inhambane Province while ENGIE announced plans to continue expanding its solar home system (SHS) and mini-grid activities. The renewable energy producer, Alcazar Energy, also declared the first roll-out of vocational training as part of its community development initiative.
Commenting, EnergyNet’s Head of Operations, Verena Lester said: “It has been a challenging journey; the site covers about 5,000 square metres and the whole process took just over a year — our first site visit to Mauritius was in April 2017. It’s been an amazing exploit for us — we had so many questions and the Beachcomber had to supply many of the answers. Those answers were never ‘no’ — they always found solutions. It’s really critical to have partnership like this for such a large project.
EnergyNet’s Head of Marketing, Amy Offord remarked that: “We really wanted to do something special this year to celebrate the Forum’s anniversary, with the theme for 2018, ‘reflecting on the achievements within the industry over the last 20 years’, putting the energy community into the spotlight and acknowledging their on-going determination to drive the sector forward.”
Stakeholders who attended the event include: the former Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji; Managing Director of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), Mr Chris Ugbo; Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), U.G. Mohammed, government representatives, oil and gas companies, financial institutions, power developers, regulators, EPC contractors, institutional investors, fund managers, private equity investors, technology providers, energy consultants, law firms, IOCs and NOCs and large energy consumers among others.
The coordinator of the organising group incentives for the Beachcomber Resort, David Bhoyroo, said that: “It’s been exciting — very different to what usually do. We didn’t have a tent like that in Mauritius. When we were approached by EnergyNet we didn’t really know what to expect. This is the biggest event ever hosted here.”
