Private Sector Needs To Close Africa’s Energy Gap

By:Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh

Email:ankiilu@yahoo.com

 

The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Donald Kaberuka says Africa needs strong independent energy regulators to attract private investment in its energy sector.

Dr. Kaberuka said this on Wednesday, last week, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

In his meeting with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalgen and Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Kaberuka discussed how best to galvanize private sector investment to close the energy gap in Africa.

The Bank President had met earlier with the United Nations Special Envoy on Global Education, Gordon Brown, to discuss the upcoming meeting in Washington, where leaders will focus on how to support countries in their final push towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the area of education.

Dr. Kaberuka also contributed to a broader discussion on the MDGs, where leaders looked at critical goals than can still be achieved in the last 1,000 days before the 2015 deadline, particularly in areas such as mother-to-child transmission of HIV-AIDS, and nutrition targets.

In other meetings, the AfDB President joined global leaders to debate how best to bring about sustainable agricultural investment in Africa, looking at initiatives such as the African Union- and New Partnership for Africa’s Development  (NEPAD)-backed Grow Africa program, and the G8 Camp David Initiative on Food Security and Nutrition.

Subsequently, Dr. Kaberuka moderated a dinner session, where African Heads  of State and of Government, including Rwandan President Paul Kagame, President Alpha Condé of Guinea and Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga were present, to discuss how best to deliver on the continent’s priorities.

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