The German government recently announced that they will contribute €100 million to the African Development Bank’s Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), in order to tap into Africa’s renewable energy potential and help the continent to introduce clean energy sources, according to media reports.
The funding announcement was made during the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Energy, held in New York on 24 September as part of the UN General Assembly. The funding will also go on to help start green baseload projects in the private sector and it will also support technical assistance and investment in power generation, transmission and distribution to increase penetration of renewable power in African grids. The funding also follows Germany’s initial contribution to SEFA of €50 million, made in 2020.
Norbert Barthle, Parliamentary State Secretary of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development told the media, “We need to accelerate the global energy transition. This requires the rapid phasing out of all fossil fuels and a massive expansion of renewable energy. The time to act is now.”
The latest financing also allies with the G20 Compact with Africa and it promotes macroeconomic, business and financing reform to attract more private investment in the continent.
SEFA is a multi-donor special fund that primarily aims to aid private sector investments that contribute to universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy services for all in Africa. Over the years, SEFA has received funding from the Government of Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway, the Nordic Development Fund, Sweden, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.