AEEP high-level dialogue at sidelines of Africa Energy Summit emphasised need for close coordination of energy initiatives in Africa

On 26 January 2025, at the sidelines of the Africa Energy Summit where Mission 300 energy compacts were signed, the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP) organised a high-level dialogue to foster bicontinental partnership. The meeting, hosted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, focused on “Scaling Energy Investments in Africa – Connecting the Dots to achieve SDG7 Targets”.
Under the moderation of AEEP’s Head of Secretariat, Dr Towela Nyirenda-Jere, 14 high-level representatives from Africa and Europe explored how to meet Africa’s energy needs by fostering an integrated approach among various initiatives supporting energy access in Africa and scaling energy investments.Participants identified some of the main challenges as lack of access, affordability of energy, insufficiently developed and aging energy infrastructure. Investments towards energy infrastructure, and, in particular, towards SDG7 have been insufficient, as also demonstrated in the third edition of AEEP’s report ‘European Financial Flows on SDG7 to Africa’, which was launched during the event.
It was highlighted how electricity access has made progress, but not at a sufficient pace, and how clean cooking has been dramatically underfunded. Addressing the clean cooking challenge was identified as a priority, as it directly impacts health, gender equality, and environmental sustainability. Scaling up investments in energy infrastructure, while taking into account the need for transition fuels, is therefore critical to meet Africa’s energy demands.
The participants, including representatives from African energy ministries, development banks, power pools and development partners, discussed how to scale up investments in energy in Africa to close this gap, through multifaceted and collaborative efforts. Developing new energy infrastructure is critical to expanding access, especially to rural and underserved populations and meeting the continent’s growing energy demand. To achieve this, emphasis should be given to improving project preparation, as it ensures projects are well-structured, bankable, and therefore contribute to risk mitigation. Moreover, participants highlighted the need to reduce the prevalence of unsolicited bids, often leading to inefficiencies and higher costs, and instead implementing competitive tendering. Knowledge transfer on how to best structure these tender processes was identified as an area of collaboration.
In addition, policy reforms, including those outlined in the Mission 300 initiative, are essential to creating a conducive environment for private investments. These reforms should focus on fostering transparent regulatory frameworks and opening access to transmission infrastructure, as well as improving the creditworthiness of utilities. Additionally, risk-mitigation mechanisms such as guarantees, but also more accurate and country specific credit rating would encourage private sector participation. Innovative and viable financing mechanisms, for the international and domestic private sector can mobilise additional resources to scale investments.

Participants acknowledged the proliferation of initiatives in the African energy space. However, they emphasised that these efforts, while numerous, are not contradictory or duplicative but rather aligned in their shared objective of advancing energy access and meeting development aspirations such as the AU’s Agenda 2063 and the SDGs. It was agreed that there is room for all initiatives to coexist, provided there is effective coordination and alignment.
Emphasis was placed on aligning with African continental initiatives such as the Africa Single Electricity Market (AfSEM), the Continental Power Systems Masterplan (CMP) and the Africa Energy Efficiency Strategy (AfEES), which serve as frameworks for regional and national programmes. Several synergies were identified, including the alignment of the European Union’s Global Gateway corridor approach with CMP strategic interconnector projects, as well as the shared objectives of Mission 300, the Africa-EU Green Energy Initiative (AEGEI), the Accelerarated Partnership for Renewables in Africa (APRA) to name a few.