South Africa has been seeking foreign investment to help drive sluggish economic growth and used the World Economic Forum 2017 platform last week to market the country as a favourable investment destination. South African Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, led a 60-strong country delegation in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.  
Energy demands in Sub-Saharan Africa have created investment interest in the Independent Power Producer (IPP) regional market in recent years as the demand for energy in the region has grown.

However, South Africa has halted its lauded Renewable Energy Power Producer’s Procurement Programme, sparking fears over the growth of the regional IPP market.

In a bid to boost momentum in the regional IPP market and to continue the growth trajectory of recent years, the Africa Energy Indaba is the first energy conference on the continent to launch a specialised workshop event exclusively bringing together African utilities to meet private sector project developers and investors.

“Despite the positive developments in regional independent power producer (IPP) energy projects, significant challenges remain for IPPs, especially when it comes to governments providing guaranteed off-take to IPPs. This has created significant risks for IPP developers and investors and will hamper the growth of the IPP market, unless other means and models are created to make the market more conducive to investment,” said Paul Runge, Director of Projects & Development Finance at Africa House, a partner consultancy to the event that provides clients with early alerts of projects across a broad range of sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa..

The one-day Africa Utility Forum will bring together the movers and shakers of Africa’s energy sector in February 2017 to unlock desperately needed energy projects and opportunities across the continent. Collaboration between neighbouring countries and between public and private sector players can greatly increase the growth of regional power markets and reduce the overall costs, which will make power accessible for African consumers.

Successes in the market such as South Africa’s Renewable Energy IPP Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) and the current privatisation process in Nigeria demonstrate that there can be power sector solutions when the public and private sectors work together to open up the market to various solutions.

The first-ever Africa Utility Forum is taking place on Wednesday 22nd February 2017, during the Africa Energy Indaba conference.  The Forum will provide IPPs, investors and key role players with the opportunity to meet role players and decision makers in the African utility space and find out about actual energy projects, current developments and priority projects in the regional power market.

This one-day workshop is an opportunity for IPPs & utilities in Africa to work together on specific, high-priority energy projects for the development of the continent’s power sector. Through its vast network of collaborative relationships with various ministries such as the Department of Energy and other key stakeholder organisations, the Africa Energy Indaba provides delegates with access to networks that are committed to seeing the energy sector benefit from more viable energy projects being built.

The event is organised by Siyenza