Obama’s power plan fuels investment stampede

By Protus Onyango

African business leader Tony Elumelu has committed $2.5 billion (Sh215.4 billion) to the Power Africa initiative launched by US President Barack Obama in South Africa last week.  The investment will be made through his pan-African investment company Heirs Holdings.

General Electric Africa also announced that it will partner with the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) to launch and co-fund a Power Africa off-grid energy challenge.

GE Africa will commit $2 million (Sh172.3 million) to a three-year Power Africa Challenge, which will be used to award 20 or more grants of up to $100,000 (Sh8.6 million) each to indigenous African organisations providing off-grid solutions that deploy renewable resources and power economic activities.

Power Africa is a $7 billion (Sh603 billion) multi-stakeholder partnership between the United States, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Ethiopia, and the African private sector to accelerate investment in Africa’s power sector over the next five years.

Earlier this year, Elumelu’s holding company purchased the Ughelli Power Plant, one of Nigeria’s largest power assets, which it plans to restore to its full generating capacity of 1,000 megawatts.

“The investment we are making demonstrates our intent to become a significant player in the power sector. It also shows in a clear and meaningful way that African capital can and should be part of the solution to Africa’s challenges. We need more African companies to step up and get involved in Africa’s development,” Elumelu said.

On his part, GE Africa President and CEO Jay Ireland said the Power Africa Challenge is intended to support Africa’s efforts to solve the challenge of insufficient and inconsistent power supply.

“We bring in the technology, but the indigenous people have valuable insights on what works best for Africa and innovative solutions to meet the power needs of the continent.”

And on Tuesday, the African Development Fund  said it expected to allocate $3 billion (Sh257.3 billion) over the next five years to support the Power Africa initiative.