The G5 Sahel heads of State, at a Summit in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, last week, gave strong support to Desert to Power, an African Development Bank- (AfDB-) led initiative.
The summit, 'Harnessing solar energy for the socioeconomic development of the G5 Sahel countries' came on the heels of a high-level technical meeting attended by the region’s energy ministers, and development partners including the World Bank, and regional institutions such as the West African Economic and Monetary Union and Economic Community of West African States.
Addressing journalists, G5 Sahel president Christian Kabore of Burkina Faso urged the private sector to support the Desert to Power initiative and underscored the strategic and critical role of power provision in the Sahel region.
“The AfDB is our bank and the private sector must be involved in this important initiative for our countries,” Kabore said at a joint press conference hosted with AfDB Group president Akinwumi Adesina, after the summit.
The goal of Desert to Power is to propel the Sahelian economies to higher growth and prosperity.
Adesina outlined the initiative’s ambitions of providing 10 000 MW of solar-generated electricity to 250-million people across the Sahel.
The G5 Sahel heads of State acknowledged that limited energy access and a dependence on fossil fuels underscored the necessity of an energy shift and the need to accelerate the economic development of the region and ensure its stability.
Five priority areas for the G5 Sahel include expanded utility-scale solar power generation capacity; extending and strengthening power transmission networks; accelerating electrification through decentralised energy solutions; revitalising national power utilities; and improving business climates for increased private sector investments.
A joint task force and a coordination unit, to be hosted by the AfDB, will be set up to improve legal and institutional frameworks and ensure that priority in energy provision is given to rural communities.
Donor and development partners were asked to help mobilise $140-million for the initiative’s project preparation phase.
Desert to Power has already galvanised political support at the global level during the recent G7 Summit, in Biarritz, France.
The Desert to Power initiative covers 11 countries – Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Djibouti, Senegal and Chad and is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Renewable Energy Initiative for Africa.
“If the Sahel is blessed with this super abundant natural resource, it simply means God intended for us to have electricity. One-hundred per cent through the sun. It is, therefore, time to turn the Sahel’s largest natural resource – the sun – into the most powerful driver of its growth and prosperity. That is why we are here,” Adesina said.