Five African heads of states have jointly signed a grant with the European Union President, Jose Manuel Barroso, in New York, a grant that will seek to woo private investors into sustainable energy development. The beneficiaries include Rwanda, Cape Verde, Cote D ‘voire, Liberia and Togo.
The grant portions to the five states will be managed by their respective ministries of finance, and will only be awarded to private investors with worthwhile sustainable energy development projects.
According to Prudence Uwabakurikiza, the information officer at the EU Delegation to Rwanda, the grant aims at attracting more investments into the countries. The local or foreign investors seeking to invest in sustainable energy will present their projects to the ministry of finance of a specific country they wish to invest in, after which they will be assessed before approval to receive a percentage of these funds.
The five beneficiaries of the grant will consume the largest portion of EU’s total grant of about US$4.2m dedicated to sustainable energy worldwide between 2014 and 2020.
To Rwanda, this comes only a fortnight after the country and the EU signed a deal worth around US$ 255 million to support its energy generation bid to help rural and urban households reduce dependency on diesel and biomass.
“Sustainable energy is essential for fueling growth and development. Two years ago, at the EU Sustainable Energy for All Summit in Brussels, I proposed the ambitious target of helping developing countries to provide access to sustainable energy services to 500 million people by 2030,” President Barroso said before the signing.