World
Private Sector Pumps USD 86 Billion into Infrastructure in Low – to Middle-Income Nations
New World Bank data finds that private infrastructure investment in low- and middle-income countries totalled USD 86 billion in 2023. Investments declined 5 percent compared with 2022. However, they were on par with the previous five-year average. Despite the decline in total investment, more countries received private investments in infrastructure across a wider sample of projects. In 2023, 68 countries received investments across 322 projects, compared to 54 countries and 260 projects in 2022. Guinea-Bissau, Libya, Papua New Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Suriname achieved their first private participation in infrastructure (PPI) transactions in over a decade.
The PPI report dates back to 1984. It continuously tracks investments in 10,000 infrastructure projects in low- and middle-income countries. As infrastructure financing becomes a bigger priority for countries around the globe, this dataset is an important resource for tracking progress and identifying trends. PPIs declined in most regions in 2023 except for the Middle East, North Africa (MENA), East Asia, and the Pacific (EAP). MENA continued its growth trajectory, with PPI investment levels almost doubling from USD 1.4 billion in 2022 to USD 2.9 billion in 2023.
Source: World Bank
Africa
AfDB Commits USD 2 Billion for Clean Cooking Access in Africa
Multilateral development financing institution the African Development Bank (AfDB) is providing USD 2 billion towards the adoption of clean cooking solutions in Africa over the next ten years. Aiming to achieve universal access to clean cooking by 2030, the pledge equates to USD 200 million in annual investment by the institution. The funding aims to reduce reliance on carbon-intensive cooking fuels, including charcoal and biomass, by promoting and adopting solutions such as Liquefied Petroleum Gas, gas-to-power, and biogas.
In doing so, the institution is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the industry while improving health and equality in clean cooking. Delivering an address in Paris, AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina recently stated that the institution will “now allocate 20 percent of all its financing for energy in Africa to clean cooking. We will work with governments to develop and roll out clean cooking solutions at scale, along with supportive policy, standards, safety and regulations, as well as fiscal incentives to improve access and affordability.”
Source: Energy, Capital & Power
East Africa
Four EAC Partners join Kenya-Uganda SGR Project
Four East African Community member states recently joined the Kenya and Uganda joint project to develop a modern railway on the Northern Corridor. However, the lack of funds haunts the joint standard gauge railway (SGR), which was terminated in Naivasha, Kenya’s Central Rift region. Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan recently joined the SGR Cluster Joint Ministerial Committee. It committed to engaging development partners in seeking funding for the railway to ease the movement of goods on the Northern Corridor.
Kenyan Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Roads and Transport Kipchumba Murkomen said that the other countries joining the cluster will increase Kampala and Nairobi’s bargaining power among donors, who have been evaluating the project’s viability for many years. To ensure the connection between Mombasa and Kinshasa, the ministers committed to assenting and ratifying the existing SGR Protocol and the SGR Tripartite Agreement by the DRC. The five partner states agreed to establish a framework that facilitates cross-border maintenance of the SGR assets and facilities.
Source: The East African
East Africa
EAC Trade with Africa Sees Significant Rise
Trade within the East African Community has significantly increased at the expense of trade with markets outside the continent. The EAC has also increased its trade with African countries outside its sub-region. This results from the region’s deliberate efforts to boost intra-Africa trade. As reported by the East African, the seven countries that make up the East African Community, according to the most recent data from the EAC Secretariat, grew their trade with the rest of Africa by USD 584.6 million to USD 4.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, a 14 percent increase over the same time in 2022.
On the flip side, trade between the EAC and West Africa’s regional bloc, ECOWAS, recorded a more than three times increase, going from USD 61 million to USD 199.6 million. Also, trade with the Southern African Development Community increased by 40 percent to USD 2.7 billion, raising its proportion of total EAC trade from 9.8 to 12.8 percent. South Africa, which accounts for the largest trade with the EAC in Africa, rose from USD 664 million to USD 838 million.
Source: Business Insider
Egypt
Egypt Signs Deal for 8 GW Wind Farm Projects in West Sohag
Egypt recently signed land allocation documents for two wind energy projects in the West Sohag region. The two wind energy projects are set to have a combined capacity of 8 gigawatts, with foreign direct investments estimated to reach USD 9 billion. The first project, with a targeted capacity of 5 gigawatts, will be spearheaded by SCATEC, while the second project, aiming for 3 gigawatts, will be implemented by an alliance led by Orascom Construction. The projects will be developed in multiple stages in collaboration with the New and Renewable Energy Development and Utilization Authority, utilising the Build-Own-Operate system.
The signing was carried out by the CEO of the New and Renewable Energy Utilization and Development Authority, Mohamed Al-Khayyat, the CEO of Norwegian SCATEC ASA, Terje Bielskog, for the first project, and the CEO of Orascom Construction, Khaled El-Dajjawi, for the second project. The consortium of investors includes ENGIE’s subsidiary Kahrabel and the Japanese company Euros Energy Holdings. These investments were initially agreed upon through memorandums of understanding signed during the COP27 conference in November 2022, between the developers, the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company, and the New and Renewable Energy Authority.
Source: Egypt Today
Ghana
Ghana to Become Africa’s First Blockchain-Powered Government
Ghana has recently announced its ambitious plan to establish itself as the first blockchain-powered government in Africa, leveraging technology to combat corruption. The technology’s automation features could save the West African country and the continent billions of dollars lost to corruption, bad governance, mismanagement, and lack of accountability.
Blockchain technology is often described as revolutionary across various sectors, including politics on a global scale. This technology can detect and record any alterations in digital data, providing a transparent and traceable record of transactions within the realm of governance. The government believes this advancement would promote transparency and enable the government to combat corruption effectively.
Amidst other economic challenges, Ghana faces a debt crisis, showing the importance of ensuring accountability and preventing the misappropriation of public funds to stabilise the economy. Regarding digital initiatives that the government has implemented since 2017, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia mentioned the ghana.gov portal, a one-stop platform for paying for public services electronically and enabling the government to collect GHS 201 billion since 2020.
Source: Business Insider Africa
Nigeria
Nigeria Ramps Up Bid to Host USD 5 Billion First African Energy Bank
The federal government has ramped up its bid to host the first energy bank in Africa, the African Energy Bank (AEB), with President Bola Tinubu approving USD 100 million as share of the initial equity requirement. A statement recently by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum, Nicholas Ella, said the technical inspection team from the African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO) and Afrexim Bank- the joint promoters for the establishment of the AEB had completed their mission in the country. It stated that the team was in the country to validate Nigeria’s readiness to host the headquarters of the continental bank which is set to be established in July 2024.
Algeria, Benin, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire were among the initial main candidates jostling to host the headquarters of the emerging AEB, and all organisational work to create the bank must be completed by June 30. The AEB says its mission is to provide a powerful impetus to energy development on the African continent through investment, including in the private sector. The initiator of the creation of the bank is APPO, headquartered in the capital of the Republic of Congo, the city of Brazzaville. APPO unites 18 countries. But following the first bidding round in early 2024, Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, and Algeria have now been pre-qualified to proceed to the final round of bidding. The countries will compete for the right to host the supranational multilateral USD 5 billion AEB, which will finance Africa’s hydrocarbon deposits of oil, gas, and condensates and support energy transition and net zero 2060 commitments.
Source: This Day
Uganda
Uganda in Talks with IAEA to Develop Nuclear Plant
Uganda and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recently started the second review in two years of the country’s uranium programme, which is expected to give way to the exploration phase and nuclear energy production in the next seven years. Uganda targets 24,000 MW from nuclear energy, which would account for nearly half of its total energy mix of 52,481 MW by 2040, with grid access of 80 percent, as approved by Cabinet in 2023. Nuclear scientists from the Vienna-based IAEA were recently in Kampala to conduct the review, assess Uganda’s preparedness and the capacity of its uranium sites and institutions, and scrutinise the legal regime, safety benchmarks, environmental protection and infrastructure development.
In 2023, Uganda signed a memorandum of understanding with Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Company to build the country’s first nuclear facility, a 2,000 MW plant in Buyende, eastern Uganda, estimated to cost USD 9 billion, according to the Energy Ministry.
Source: The EastAfrican
Reports
The Energy Transition in Africa: Opportunities for International Collaboration | IRENA
Africa stands at a crucial crossroads in its developmental trajectory, and energy plays a pivotal role in shaping its future. Despite having abundant renewable resources, the continent faces a significant energy access deficit, with three-quarters of the population needing more access. Insufficient investment compounds this issue, with the continent receiving less than 2 percent of global investments in renewable energy over the last two decades.
This report identifies priority areas for potential collaboration between the G7 and Africa, including increasing investment in infrastructure and enabling access to finance, expanding energy access and supporting the productive use of energy, effectively managing critical minerals for the energy transition, and strengthening institutional frameworks and capacity.
Click here to read and download the full report.
The Africa Wealth Report 2024 | Henley & Partners
The growth story is promising, with Africa’s millionaire population set to rise 65 percent in the next decade, fueled by strong growth in key sectors such as fintech, eco-tourism, business process outsourcing, software development, rare metals mining, green tech, media and entertainment, and wealth management. Investment migration is emerging as a potential catalyst for Africa’s economic growth. By offering residence and citizenship through investment opportunities, African countries can attract vital foreign capital, stimulate job creation, and foster knowledge transfer. This benefits the host nations and provides African HNWIs with enhanced global mobility and risk diversification options.
The Africa Wealth Report is the definitive guide to Africa’s wealth and luxury sector. It provides a comprehensive review of the continent’s wealthiest countries and cities and expert insights on economic mobility, the investment migration sector, and wealth management.
Click here to read and download the full report.
Digital Opportunities in African Businesses | World Bank
Adopting digital technologies is widely acknowledged to boost productivity and employment, stimulate investment, and promote growth and development. Africa has already benefited from rapid information and communications technology diffusion, characterised by the widespread adoption of mobile phones. However, access to and use of digital technology among firms is uneven in the region, varying not just among countries but also within them. Consequently, African businesses may need to be reaping the full potential benefits offered by ongoing improvements in digital infrastructure.
This report analyses the opportunities for businesses across Africa to increase the productive use of digital technologies. Building on ongoing research initiatives, it provides a novel analysis of the extent of digitalisation across businesses. The analysis goes beyond country-level uptake gaps to more intensively understand the opportunities arising from using specific digital technologies. It also analyses the cost and investments needed for digital upgrading by firms and the opportunities for digital business providers in Africa.
Click here to read and download the full report.
Economic Report on Africa 2024: Investing in a Just and Sustainable Transition in Africa | United Nations. Economic Commission for Africa
Africa faces persistent hurdles to its inclusive and sustainable development. Despite several pockets of excellence in the continent’s progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063, the number of SDG targets that require acceleration or reversal exceeds those on course. To reverse this trajectory, Africa will need to finance about USD 1.6 trillion through 2030. In a multipolar, geopolitically unstable world mired in polycrisis, Africa cannot continue business as usual and be fit for purpose.
The report aims to contextualise and conceptualise the imperative for a just and sustainable transition (JST) for Africa to achieve its economic, social, and environmental priorities; Highlight opportunities and assess the state of JSTs in Africa in terms of the three pillars of sustainability: environmental, social, and economic; Evaluate the opportunities for financing the JSTs in Africa based on country case studies; Recommend policies and frameworks for Africa to undertake the JSTs successfully.
