The Bank is supporting landmark transactions with leading offgrid companies using innovative instruments to unlock local currency capital.
SPECIAL REPORT
How does the African Development Bank see Asia as a whole and India in particular as models for the development of technology in Africa?
Japan, South Korea, China, and India are very important and valued shareholders of the Bank. In addition to supporting the Bank’ s statutory resources, they also have various co-financing agreements and trust funds which are leveraging and catalysing the Bank’ s resources for Africa’ s development. The relationship of some of the Asian countries with Africa is unique as these countries have made the successful transition from aid recipients to donor countries, which makes them cherished and influential advisors in terms of African economic transformation.
The Bank has been drawing inspiration from Asian countries in energy, industry and agricultural transformation policies. Indeed, Asian countries can play a crucial role in the transfer of skills and technological capacity.
The growth of innovations and investments are where African countries can benefit from strategic partnerships with Asia. The private sector is contributing substantially to Africa’ s information technology revolution, improving its efficiency and reducing costs. While Africa is catching up quickly, public institutions are still lagging behind. Many government processes are not digital, causing massive losses in revenues and delays in the processing of business applications. Most Asian countries have prioritised human capital and education investments at all levels to sustain their development. The Asian examples demonstrate that unfavourable initial conditions are not insurmountable and, therefore, with the right policies in place, African countries can emulate their Asian peers and achieve remarkable results in human capital and skills development for their growing populations.
While nearly two-thirds of Africa’ s population make a living through agriculture, the sector contributes only 16 percent to the continent’ s GDP. Meanwhile, India has successfully introduced its green revolution, contract farming, drip irrigation, created new agricultural markets and brought in robotics technology and precision farming which can benefit the African continent as well.
India can play a crucial role in enhancing technology in Africa’ s agriculture, through innovations in information and communication technology which would empower farmers with knowledge on agricultural technologies,
The Bank is supporting landmark transactions with leading offgrid companies using innovative instruments to unlock local currency capital.
best practices, markets, price trends, sources of finance and weather conditions.
Africa can also learn from the Digital Financial Inclusion achieved by India with over billion mobiles, 325 million broadband connections, and over 300 million new bank accounts. India’ s experience in the renewable energy sector can also be of immense benefit to the COMESA countries in their efforts towards sustainable development and green growth.
What are the key undertakings of your recently signed joint declaration with the International Solar Alliance?
The joint declaration recognises both the critical role and the huge investment needs of solar energy for Africa’ s development. The African Development Bank and the International Solar Alliance( ISA) will cooperate on the development of specific financing instruments, notably for off-grid solar projects and solar IPPs for African ISA member countries.
We also plan to work together on the mobilisation of concessional financing, including through existing trust funds, such as the Bank’ s Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa( SEFA) which has been playing a crucial role in the preparation of renewable energy projects, and the Facility for Energy Inclusion( FEI), which intends to close funding gaps in the small-scale energy infrastructure sector and catalyse growth in last-mile energy access solutions.
The joint declaration also envisages the support of ISA for the Bank’ s transformative Desert to Power initiative in the Sahel and Sahara regions, which will generate 10 GW of solar power and provide clean energy for 90 million people.
The launch of ISA this March in Delhi showed the commitment of African Heads of State and Government to the cause of solar development in Africa. The Bank looks forward to working with ISA and African countries to realise these ambitions.
How optimistic are you about the development of renewable energy in Africa?
Africa’ s renewable energy resources are diverse, unevenly distributed and enormous in quantity— the solar potential is almost unlimited( 10 TW) and there is abundant hydro( 350 GW), wind( 110 GW) and geothermal energy sources( 15 GW). The African continent is endowed with more than half of the world’ s renewable energy potential.
12 • COMESA • 2018