ARE & EEP Africa Sign MoU to Promote Renewable Electrification in Southern & East Africa
Brussels & Helsinki, 14 February 2022 – A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Energy and Environment Partnership Trust Fund (EEP Africa) and the Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE). The MoU sets out the shared goals of the two organisations to address the barriers within the clean energy sector across Southern and East Africa. Both organisations are committed to promote social and economic development by increasing the share of renewable energies in the energy mix in the region.
The partners aim to work together on a number of activities, including joint offers and support services for African decentralised renewable energy (DRE) actors who work to address energy access, energy security and climate change challenges, co-organising workshops, and webinars on related topics as well as co-hosting networking events and providing direct business support to DRE companies.
In this regard, both parties aim to develop the capacity of renewable energy stakeholders in Africa to create local jobs and enhance the capacity of the sector to attract adequate financing for renewable energy projects and businesses. This will, for example, be achieved by spearheading “DRE Investment Academies” or similar trainings for early-stage DRE companies and other stakeholders, with the aim of raising additional fundraising and technical support.
Finally, the MoU states that the partners will collaborate on enhancing the knowledge base of the DRE sector in Africa to address key issues and bottlenecks for the smooth deployment of renewable solutions to achieve universal electrification.
David Lecoque, CEO of ARE said: “We strive to enable private sector to deliver universal clean energy access by 2030 and this MoU is a concrete step towards achieving this goal. Under this partnership, we will collaborate on scaling up the deployment of DRE solutions which will benefit local communities, support the economic development and address climate change challenges.”
Jussi Viding, Fund Manager of EEP Africa said: “The vision and goals of ARE and EEP Africa are highly complementary. ARE has brilliant networks and works holistically on several fronts in advancing the DRE agenda. This is extremely important for the early-stage clean energy businesses supported by EEP Africa, many of which are acting as first movers in their market segment. This partnership brings us closer together in our common efforts to support these businesses and the sector in general.”