The Africa Energy Forum – an important platform for project investment

With global investors clearly looking closer at the opportunities on the continent, it’s exciting that already 456 unique companies have registered to date from 63 countries worldwide, spanning the value chain of Africa’s power sector – 28 of those are African countries; the largest number to date in the Forum’s 17 year history.
The Forum has 11 Ministers confirmed; among those are Ministers of Energy, Infrastructure and Finance from Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia, as well as heads of utilities and regulators across Africa.
This year’s Forum introduces the ‘Power In Africa Awards’ & Black Tie Gala Dinner – an ‘Emirati Banquet’ honouring people and businesses with actual projects in operation on the continent, it will also include 12 Ministerial and Utility-led country specific project briefings will shine the spotlight onto unique countries in Africa to provide detailed industry insights and in-country knowledge,an Africa Energy Yearbook- the official publication of the Forum now featuring insights from the most prolific investors and important stakeholders in the energy space, and Private meeting rooms for over 530 closed door meetings between investors and stakeholders.
Sponsored by Aggreko and Norton Rose Fulbright, the ‘EnergyNet Student Engagement Initiative (ESEI)’ brings 32 of the brightest chemical engineers and economics and law students from South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia to Dubai to meet investors and take that next step towards further development and employment.
This year also sees the launch of the ‘ESEI Innovation Hub,’ showcasing creative exciting and scalable renewable technology destined to impact Africa’s access to alternative energy solutions.
Not to be missed – ‘Access Power’ present the ‘Access Co-development Fund (ACF)’; a live ‘Dragon’s Den’ style competition for early stage project investment, enabling four shortlisted projects to pitch for up to US$5m of development finance which will be awarded during the Forum in Dubai.