OREANDA-NEWS. The African Development Bank (AfDB) is hosting and co-organizing Energy Week, a series of events, including high-level discussions and partnerships focusing on lighting up and powering Africa, and unlocking the continent’s huge energy potential. Energy Week runs from Monday, September 14 to Friday, September 18 in Abidjan.

Since taking office on September 1, the President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, has reaffirmed the position of energy among the key priorities for the AfDB. “Africa is blessed with limitless potential for solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal energy resources,” he said during his inaugural speech. “Unlocking the huge energy potential of Africa, for Africa, will be a major focus of the Bank. The Bank will be a leader on this critical issue, for nothing is more important for Africa’s economic growth and development.

“We will be bold and creative, to build strategic partnerships on energy for Africa and harness resources from the public and the private sectors. We will work closely with our political leaders and support African countries to power their economies. As a Bank, we will launch a New Deal on Energy for Africa.” Energy Week will launch a dialogue with key stakeholders to set out the New Deal on Energy for Africa that will accelerate energy supply and access across the continent.

Events taking place during Energy Week include the ECOWAS Sustainable Energy Policy & Investment High Level Forum, the “Towards a New Deal on Energy for Africa” High Level Consultative Stakeholder Meeting, the 2nd West African Forum for Clean Energy Financing, the technical meeting of the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative, and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) West Africa Clean Energy Corridor Technical Workshop. Leading investors, project developers, policymakers, development institutions, entrepreneurs and heads of state are expected to attend.

The ECOWAS Sustainable Energy Policy & Investment High Level Forum takes place on September 14-18. It will bring together top-level policy- and decision-makers, project promoters, investors and international partners to meet, discuss and explore relevant inter-linkages between the ‘enabling environment’ and project development and financing, and identify concrete investment opportunities. The latter will be country-driven based on the Sustainable Energy Country Action Plans, National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs), National Energy Efficiency Action Plans (NEEAPs), and the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) Action Agendas of the ECOWAS Member States.

The technical meeting of the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative will take place on September 16, to finalize the action plan for the Initiative.

The African Development Bank’s High Level Stakeholder Consultative Workshop “Towards a New Deal on Energy for Africa” will take place on September 17-18 and will bring together leaders in the energy sector to identify actions for the launch of the New Deal on Energy for Africa. It will also chart next steps towards a Transformative Partnership on Energy for Africa, providing a major platform for structured private sector, multilateral and bilateral partnerships and financing to solve Africa’s energy challenge.

The West Africa Forum for Clean Energy Financing (WAFCEF2) is West Africa’s premier clean energy investment showcase. Participating projects were selected through a rigorous evaluation process, in response to a call for proposals. Twenty projects were shortlisted, and have received dedicated support and assistance from CTI PFAN professional financing advisors to help structure bankable business plans and professional investment pitches. The 10 best projects from this shortlist will be presented at the WAFCEF2 Investor Forum on September 17.

The IRENA Africa Clean Energy Corridor in West Africa calls for the accelerated deployment of, and cross-border trade in, renewable power. IRENA will facilitate a technical stakeholders’ meeting on September 18, and launch the IRENA Project and Financial Navigator and Sustainable Energy Market Place, which aims to make the overall renewable energy project development process more transparent, practical and explicit.

The Energy Week events are organized in partnership with the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE), the Climate Technology Initiative – Private Financing Advisory Network (CTI-PFAN), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) Africa Hub, and the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA). They are supported by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Deutsche Gesellschaft f?r Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the Government of C?te d’Ivoire, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC), the European Union (EU), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), the International Center for Environmental Technology Transfer (ICETT), la Banque ouest africaine de D?veloppement (BOAD), and the African Biofuels and Renewable Energy Company (ABREC). ABREC is affiliated with the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID).

The African Development Bank plays a leadership role in energy on the continent as host of the Secretariat of the African Energy Leaders Group (AELG), host of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) Africa Hub, an architect of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) and a key financier for the PIDA Priority Action Plan, an anchor partner to President Obama’s Power Africa Initiative, and a key partner on the new Africa Renewable Energy Initiative. The AfDB has an active energy portfolio of around USD 10 billion, and lending to energy sector projects in recent years has on average exceeded USD 1 billion annually. The Bank is also a leader in clean energy financing and host to a suit of concessional finance instruments including SEFA, GEF and the Climate Investment Funds.