Two major institutional investors in African electricity have joined forces to bring more financial and technical clout for new power schemes on the continent.
Harith General Partners and Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) announced on 22 June a merging of their power sector assets, expertise and experience to "create a new energy entity" comprising renewable and non-renewable assets in Africa.
They said that on a continent where more than 620 million people live without electricity- more than the population of the European Union – the partnership would "lead the way in power generation" to accelerate growth in African economies.
The joint venture’s portfolio supplies, or shortly will supply, energy to over 30 million people in 10 African countries and has a combined gross operational and under-construction capacity of 1,575 MW, the pair said in a statement.
The timing could not have been better as the power sector in Africa presents very attractive investment opportunities and the growth in this sector is expected to continue exponentially– Tshepo Mahloele, CEO of Harith and Chairman of Aldwych
The joint venture will merge the AFC’s interests in Cenpower, owner of the Kpone Independent Power Project under construction in Ghana, and Cabeolica, a wind farm that provides 20% of Cape Verde’s energy needs, with those of the Pan Africa Infrastructure Development Fund (PAIDF), which is managed by Harith.
These include the Azura Edo IPP in Nigeria, the Lake Turkana Wind Power in Kenya (pictured), Kelvin Power Station in South Africa and the Rabai Thermal project in Kenya. Collectively this portfolio represents some of the largest projects in Africa’s energy sector.
AFC and Harith claim that the new venture will be able to develop and finance projects with shorterlead times, and will benefit from combined expertise.
"Our new joint venture will make an invaluable contribution to improving generation capacity in countries across the length and breadth of Africa," said Andrew Alli, President and CEO of AFC, "and by working together we can deliver tangible benefit for Africans, switching their lights on and stimulating positive economic growth on the continent."
Tshepo Mahloele, CEO of Harith and Chairman of Aldwych, said: "The timing could not have been better as the power sector in Africa presents very attractive investment opportunities and the growth in this sector is expected to continue exponentially."
Image: Included in the new joint venture’s portfolio is Kenya’s Lake Turkana Wind Power Project, shown here in April 2016. The 310MW wind farm is Kenya’s single largest private investment (ltwp.co.ke)
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The huge economic potential of the African Continent cannot be realised without an ever increasing number of these renewable energy projects which is and will be ever more essential if such a potential is to be fully realised!