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In a world where sustainable energy is the key to the future, International Solar Alliance (ISA) brought together, Government, Business Community,
Energy leaders, policymakers, and stakeholders from across Africa for the Seventh Meeting of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Regional Committee for Africa in Accra.
The high-level gathering is focused on accelerating the continent’s transition to clean energy and strengthening regional cooperation in solar development.
ISA presents a global opportunity under one goal, harnessing the power of the sun to revolutionize global energy landscape.
Themed, Catalyzing Solar investments and Institutional capacity across the continent the event also discuss actionable strategies for energy access, solar innovation, and climate-resilient growth.
Hon. Mr. John Abdulai Jinapor, the Minister of Energy and Green Transition, Ghana, and Chair of the Seventh Meeting of the Regional Committee for Africa, stated in his address that, “Ghana stands ready to partner with his colleagues. And this is not just a Ghana affair, it’s a regional affair.
Africa has huge challenges when it comes to energy security, and if one will develop a continent, wishes to achieve its aspiration, the provision of reliable, dependable and affordable, but clean energy is key, and in this case, solar represents the most viable option.
Ghana has made some tremendous progress. We are almost achieving better access to electricity.
Our power supply is fairly stable. We have enough, and we are even exporting.
Ghana stands ready to partner with his colleagues. And this is not just a Ghana affair, it’s a regional affair.
Our vision is to have a minimum of 10% of our energy banks emanating from renewables, and that even excludes our hydro potentials. I’ve had very good, fruitful discussions with the director general, but immediately, when we want to set forth is to work to deploy solar irrigation homes across the country,
particularly in some parts of the country, for close to like six months during the dry season, because our families depend on rain fed agriculture, they virtually have no activity doing and India has pioneered it, and we want to learn from them.
They agreed that they would work with us and collaborate with us so we can install these solar pumps. By installing the Solar Pumps, what will happen is Ghanaians will be able to engage in product all year round. And so we’ve signed some MOUs. We’ve signed some agreements, and what we want to do is to promote local content, so they will deploy the technology. They will train Ghanaian artisans, train Ghanaian technicians so that we can deploy this solar farms, and they have shown to be a game changer. In addition to that, we want to deploy solar rooftop solutions to some critical institutions, particularly in areas where we do not yet have electricity. We are also working very hard to deploy what we call off grid solutions. And so the collaboration is being worked on”.
In addressing the media upon what transpired during the inauguration of the seventh meeting of the ISA Regional Committee for the African Region, Dr. Ashish Khanna said “we have heard and ratify the strategy of International Solar Alliance, of moving from ambition to action by having the support of an Africa solar facility, which is a catalytic finance of $200 million with first 75 million to be operationalized before the end of 2025. It will leverage investments of more than $800 million of decentralized renewable energy In private sector of Africa, starting with the first fund in Nigeria, we also discussed the importance of building capability within Africa, where 12 centers of excellence, called solar technology application resource centers, will be institutionalized before the end of 2025 in Africa, including one in Ghana, which will become centers for training, for testing labs and for having youth incubation being operationalized, for having Ghana’s own knowledge.
We also discussed how Africans are going to get lot more trained, both through the masters program for getting the latest skills, but also increasingly, by having a global capability center on digitization and AI, which will bring the latest experience of India for helping Africa Not being left behind and having digital leapfrogging entire Africa. We were also fortunate to have country partnership frameworks signed with Ghana, Nigeria and Gambia. These will allow a detailed country partnership strategy over next three to five years for clear, tangible programs on large scale, solar, solar pumps, looking at other forms of distributed renewable energy to be facilitated. We also discussed how private sector enablement would be essential for Africa, because out of $2.2 trillion of money that was invested on clean energy globally last year, only 2% came to Africa with six 80 million people without energy access and one of the highest tariffs. This is not acceptable. International Solar Alliance is really keen to partner with all African countries in ensuring a faster energy access, as per mission 300 but also bringing down the cost of energy because solar for each country’s least cost generation plan will help in meeting your energy needs and Meeting energy access. We are delighted for the success of a very strong commitment from All the countries.
Key Focus Areas of the seventh meeting of the ISA regional committee for the African region
°Boost solar investments and strengthen institutional capacity, helping Africa bridge this gap to a sustainable energy, secure future
°Mobilizing catalytic finance for solar projects
°Solar for Agriculture, Food security and Rural Livelihoods.
°Digitalization and smart Energy System
°Scaling solar through policy , technology and regional cooperation
°Enabling the private sector to harness AI and digitalization
°Supporting Enabling Policy and technology Ecosystems for solar.
°Mobilizing the private sector through the CEO Caucus.
About the International Solar Alliance
The International Solar Alliance is a global initiative launched in 2015 by India and France at COP21 in Paris. It has 124 Member and Signatory Countries. The Alliance works with governments to improve energy access and security worldwide and promotes solar power as a sustainable transition to a clean energy future. ISA’s mission is to unlock investments in solar energy while reducing the cost of technology and financing it. It promotes the use of solar energy in agriculture, healthcare, transportation, and power generation sectors.
About the ISA Regional Committee for the Africa Region
The Regional Committees of the ISA meet annually, chaired by two Vice Presidents from the Region, and aim to assess and discuss progress, challenges, and opportunities related to ISA’s programmatic support, flagship initiatives, partnerships, private sector engagements, and work plan for the Region. A significant goal of the Regional Committee Meetings is smooth coordination among the Region’s Member Countries. At present, the Africa Region hosts 39 Member Countries and 07 Signatory Countries.
