AsiaElec: Africa seeks Japanese renewables investment

The Japanese renewables industry is being courted by the Ivory Coast-based African Development Bank (AfDB) in a bid to attract investment in energy projects across the continent.

Speaking at the August 27 and 28 Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8) in the Tunisian capital of Tunis, AfDB President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said: “In 2020, Moody’s Analytics performed a 10-year cumulative assessment of global infrastructure debt default rates, by region. It found that Africa was the region with the second lowest cumulative default rate, after the Middle East. That is proof once again that infrastructure as an asset class in Africa is solid, secure and profitable.”

He did so in front of 20 visiting heads of state from around the continent as well as a range of Japanese business leaders, in what was the eighth such event aimed at affording African leaders the opportunity to seek investment from one of the world’s leading nations in terms of renewable energy.

AfDB President Adesina, however, offered little in the way of specifics, leaving observers nonplussed at chances missed.

Speaking via video-link from Japan, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida highlighted the $20bn Japan had already invested in the continent over the past three years as part of a goal put in place at TICAD7 in Yokohama, Japan in 2019.