The African Renewable Energy Fund (AREF), a dedicated renewable energy fund focused on sub-Saharan Africa, announced during the African Development Bank’s “Energy Week” that it successfully reached its final close at its hard cap, with US $200 million of committed capital to support small- to medium-scale projects, with investment at the final close from European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF), among other investors.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has placed energy squarely on the front burner of its development agenda, for a continent on which some 645 million, more than half of the population, do not have access to reliable electricity. Africa’s “energy poverty” is a paradox, given that the continent is blessed with vast raw energy resources.  A two-day debate on the subject ended in Abidjan on Friday.

Etty Ekolan Alain is the winner of the top prize at the second West Africa Forum for Clean Energy Financing (WAFCEF2).

The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) unveiled its landmark initiative to solve Africa's huge energy deficit by 2025 at a High Level Stakeholder Consultative Meeting attended by business and political leaders at its headquarters in Abidjan on 17 September 2015.

The “New Deal on Energy for Africa,” which charts the way for a transformative partnership on energy focuses on mobilizing support and funding for the initiative from five key areas.

The Second West Africa Forum for Clean Energy Financing (WAFCEF2) awards, in which entrepreneurs showcase their projects in the area of clean and renewable energy, opened Thursday, September 17 at the African Development Bank headquarters in Abidjan. The Forum provides finalists with an opportunity to present their projects to financiers and investors.