Kenya’s Water and Sanitation Investors Conference 2024, held in the capital, Nairobi, concluded with a call for accelerated investment towards universal access to water and sanitation by 2030.

The March 6-8 conference underscored the need for collaboration to support governments in bridging the financing gap through private sector funding, blended financing from commercial banks, Development Finance Institutions, and capital markets. Kenya requires about Ksh 995 billion (around $7.5 billion) to achieve universal access to water and sanitation by 2030.

Mecuria Assefaw, Manager of the African Development Bank Water Security and Sanitation Division, highlighted the importance of diversifying investments in the sector to meet the financing gap. He stressed the significance of Private Public Partnerships in ensuring water and sanitation for all.

“By facilitating collaboration for PPPs, we unlock a new door for investments and capital,” he said, adding that closing the financing gap in the sector requires long-term sustained efforts.

Assefaw referenced successful PPP initiatives like the Rwanda’s Kigali Bulk Water Supply Project, co-funded by the Bank alongside other development partners, which has significantly improved water services for half a million people.

Julius Korir, Principal Secretary in Kenya’s Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation, affirmed the political goodwill in Kenya for PPP projects in the water sector, noting efforts to align the Water Act with the PPP législation to opérationnalise such projects.

The conference emphasized the importance of creating an enabling investment environment through good governance and regulatory structures. Emily Kilongi, a Senior Water and Sanitation Officer at the Bank, stressed that proper policy, institutional, and regulatory arrangements are vital for facilitating investments in activities that contribute to water security and safe sanitation.”  

The Bank was represented in other high-level sessions, including the Catchment to Tap and Climate Change Investment Opportunities. Emmanuel Olet, Chief Water Development Officer, and Benson Bumbe Nkhoma, Principal Water Resources Management and Development Officer in the Water Development and Sanitation Department, called for innovative ways of conserving catchment areas while engaging with communities, given the emerging and growing challenges resulting from population growth and expanding land use.

Edwin Mwangi, a Private Sector Specialist with the Bank, reiterated the critical role of the private sector in implementing the construction of water sector infrastructure and bridging the funding gap to achieve Sustainable Development Goals 6 through blended finance solutions.

The African Development Bank co-sponsored the conference, which was organized by Kenya’s Water Sector Trust Fund. It brought together stakeholders from various sectors. The Bank’s ongoing active portfolio in the country currently stands at $3.98 billion, including investments in critical infrastructure (transport, water and sanitation, and energy) accounting for 74%.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

10th Cohort of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme (https://www.TonyElumeluFoundation.org) Announced; Over 50 business sectors from farming to technology represented; 20,000 entrepreneurs from 54 countries across Africa funded in 10 years – doubling original target.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), the leading philanthropy empowering young African entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries, has announced the successful entrepreneurs in its tenth selection for the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme.

This new cohort brings to 20,000, the number of young African entrepreneurs who have received funding, mentoring, and capacity-building support from the Foundation, double the initial commitment. The Tony Elumelu Foundation has disbursed US$100,000,000 directly to young African entrepreneurs, who have created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs, contributing significantly to Africa’s economic growth and development. 45% of these beneficiaries are women, reiterating the Foundation’s commitment to gender inclusion and equity.

Past entrepreneurs selected across Africa include:

Stella Sigana, founder of Alternative Waste Technologies from Kenya, produces fuel briquettes by converting organic and charcoal waste from slum settlements, and dedicates a portion of the revenues to providing education, skills training, and job placement for adolescent girls and young women aged 18-24. Since her selection, Stella has created 12 jobs, generated over $79,000 in revenue, and recycled over 500 tons of waste into fuel briquettes for cooking. Her business model has also empowered hundreds of women entrepreneurs in slum settlements in Kenya, enabling them to build businesses by selling her products directly to their communities, thus significantly increasing household income and wellbeing.
Vital Sounouvou from Benin is the founder of Exportunity, an e-commerce platform that promotes export opportunities for Africans by connecting producers with traders. Through Exportunity, Sounouvou has engaged over 750 clients, and built a database of 85,000 companies trading with Africa. He has employed 32 people.
Nora Chaynane, a Moroccan entrepreneur, and founder of Shine Space, a socio-educational initiative aimed at bridging the knowledge gap and guiding students toward the right career path, helps young Moroccans develop technical and interpersonal skills beyond school curriculum requirements. Through Shine Space, Nora has upskilled and capacitised over 2,500 young Moroccans.

Since inception in 2010, the Tony Elumelu Foundation has pioneered an innovative approach to seeding, capacitising and networking young entrepreneurs across Africa. Drawing directly from Founder Tony Elumelu’s entrepreneurial journey, the Foundation democratises luck, spreads opportunity, in a sector agnostic approach, and has developed a bespoke infrastructure that reaches every country in Africa. The Foundation is driven by our Founder’s philosophy of Africapitalism, which advocates that the private sector, particularly entrepreneurs, must play the pivotal role in Africa’s development.

The robust ability of the Foundation to reach entrepreneurs across geographies and sectors has enabled it to conduct innovative partnerships with the European Union (EU), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the US Government via the United States African Development Foundation (USADF), the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), the French Development Agency (AFD), the German Development Finance Institution (DEG), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the African Development Bank (AfDB), Sèmè City Development Agency, and Google, with bespoke programmes including targeting female empowerment and growth in fragile states. Building on its existing partnership with Sèmè City Development Agency, the Tony Elumelu Foundation will fund an additional 100 young entrepreneurs from Benin Republic in 2024.

Tony O. Elumelu shared: “As we mark a decade of impact, I am immensely proud of the incredible journey we have embarked on. Our entrepreneurs represent the driving force behind Africa’s economic transformation, and their resilience, determination, and innovation continue to inspire us all. The future of our continent is brighter because of their efforts.”

As part of the Tony Elumelu Foundation’s commitment to support young Africans, the following ongoing opportunities are currently open for applications from young entrepreneurs across Africa on TEFConnect (https://TEFConnect.com/):

Women Entrepreneurship For Africa (WE4A), a partnership between the European Union, GIZ and TEF

Aguka Entrepreneurship Programme, a partnership between UNDP and TEF in Rwanda

African entrepreneurs are encouraged to apply to these initiatives to receive training, mentorship, access to networks, and funding.

To learn more about the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme “Decade of Impact” please see here (https://apo-opa.co/3IULYeS). The success stories of these beneficiaries can be found here (https://apo-opa.co/3VzIx4X), and a full breakdown of the Foundation’s beneficiaries across Africa can be found here (https://apo-opa.co/3TOQCkS). For more insights into our impactful initiatives, milestones, and the transformative stories of entrepreneurs across Africa, delve into our annual reports here (https://apo-opa.co/43xk2r6).

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

For media inquiries, please contact:
Moyo Awotile
Head, Marketing&Corporate Communications
+234-809-975-1482
moyo.awotile@tonyelumelufoundation.org

About the Tony Elumelu Foundation:
The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and increasing women economic empowerment. Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has provided access to over 1.5 million young Africans on its digital hub, TEFConnect, and disbursed over USD$100 million in direct funding to 20,000 young African women and men, who have collectively created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs.

GE Vernova’s (www.GEVernova.com) carbon emissions management software, CERius™, will be deployed at Azito’s largest power plant in the Ivory Coast to boost accuracy of reporting; The software will harness the power of AI to empower the energy industry to meet their net-zero goals and serve as an example on how to measure, manage, and operationalize insights to help reduce carbon emissions.

Today, GE Vernova announced that Globeleq’s Azito Energie S.A. (“Azito”), the largest gas power plant in Cote D’Ivoire, will be the first power plant to debut and deploy its carbon emissions management software, CERius™, which is designed to help energy companies progress toward their net-zero goals using data precision and abatement planning capabilities. This announcement comes on the heels of more global regulations around emissions reporting, including the recent rules passed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which seeks to require companies to report emissions for the first time.

CERius™ will use the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to enable organizations to more accurately measure, manage, and operationalize certain insights needed to help companies track their carbon neutral emissions goals. CERius™ is engineered to automate more accurate greenhouse gas (GHG) data collection and suggest recommendations to operationalize carbon reduction efforts by offering scenario analysis, team collaboration, and standardized reporting based on GHG protocols.

“One of the most effective ways to drive emissions reduction in the energy sector is to pursue digital transformation,” said, Linda Rae, General Manager, Power Generation&Oil and Gas, Electrification Software, GE Vernova. “While many energy industrials have been reporting emissions for years, the process is labor intensive, slow to surface insights, and based upon generic formulas. The energy transition demands agility, speed, and accuracy of data collection – CERius™ offers the fidelity of reporting emissions down to a specific asset, which can unleash actionable insights to help improve scope 1, 2, and 3 data accuracy and reporting, in addition to measuring abatement planning strategies,” added Rae.

Azito is a trailblazer in the digital energy space in Africa, serving as an example to other energy producers on the benefits of using digital solutions. By deploying CERius™, Azito will be not just the first company in Africa, but in the world, to access this technology and be able to better manage their emissions data, compliance reporting, and strategic planning, further contributing to their net-zero goals. Implementing cross-functional standards and processes fueled by CERius™ will help position companies to address ever-evolving regulatory compliance. “As we see the rise of environmental reporting across the energy supply chain by regulators, stakeholders, and investors, software will be a game-changer for power utilities, if applied at speed and to scale,” added Rae.

With greater access to emissions data, Azito will be able to make more informed decisions on how to reduce their carbon emissions. Azito already uses GE Vernova’s award winning Asset Performance Management (APM)[1] software’s APM Reliability Plus module, which uses advanced algorithms, AI, and ML to help predict potential failures in the power plants several weeks/days before they occur. Hence, allowing proper planning with the goal to reduce downtime which automatically translates to more productive hours and higher revenues.

Gionata Visconti, Chief Operating Officer of Globeleq, said: “As a Group that has a mixed portfolio of power plants across Africa and is fully committed to the energy transition, it is vital that we are able to monitor and report our emissions from one of our key thermal plants in a timely and accurate manner. At the same time, we can use the information from CERius™ to reduce and abate our emissions. Critically, Azito is an essential part of Cote d’Ivoire’s energy infrastructure, and we will now be able to make important planning decisions with better and more insightful data.”

The Azito power plant generates electricity using natural gas from the country’s offshore gas fields. Located in the village of Azito in the district of Yopougon, approximately 6 km west of Abidjan, the facility uses combined cycle gas turbines that generate 713 MW of electricity. This equates to approximately 30% of the country’s base load generation.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of GE.

Notes to Editors:

Learn more about GE Vernova’s CERius™ Software (https://apo-opa.co/3Vym1JO)
Azito and GE Vernova recently received an award from Oil&Gas Awards for “Cross Border Energy Transition and Digital Transformation (https://apo-opa.co/4a9OASj).

For media enquiries, please contact: 
Arti Mohan
GE Vernova
Electrification Software 
Mobile: +44 (0) 7468 351 586
Email: arti.mohan@ge.com

George Cazenove
Globeleq Africa Limited
Mobile: +44 (0) 7557 286719
Email:  George.Cazenove@globeleq.com

About GE Vernova:
GE Vernova is a planned, purpose-built global energy company that includes Power, Wind, and Electrification businesses and is supported by its accelerator businesses of Advanced Research, Consulting Services, and Financial Services. Building on over 130 years of experience tackling the world’s challenges, GE Vernova is uniquely positioned to help lead the energy transition by continuing to electrify the world while simultaneously working to decarbonize it. GE Vernova helps customers power economies and deliver electricity that is vital to health, safety, security, and improved quality of life. GE Vernova’s Electrification Software business is focused on providing a suite of software products and services to customers aiming to accelerate a new era of energy by electrifying and decarbonizing the energy ecosystem through intelligent and efficient data analytics, monitoring, and management.

GE Vernova’s mission is embedded in its name – it retains its legacy, “GE,” as an enduring and hard-earned badge of quality and ingenuity. “Ver” / “verde” signal Earth’s verdant and lush ecosystems. “Nova,” from the Latin “novus,” nods to a new, innovative era of lower carbon energy. Supported by the Company Purpose, The Energy to Change the World, GE Vernova will help deliver a more affordable, reliable, sustainable, and secure energy future. Learn more: GE Vernova  (www.GEVernova.com) and LinkedIn (https://apo-opa.co/3uOZUE3).

About Azito:
Globeleq, which is owned 70% by British International Investment and 30% by Norfund, is the leading developer, owner and operator of electricity generation and energy transition projects in Africa. Since 2002, its experienced team of professionals have built a diverse portfolio of independent power plants, generating 1,794 MW in 17 locations across seven countries, with a further 485 MW in construction and more than 2,000 MW of power projects in development.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has welcomed the adoption of Resolution 2728 (2024) by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on 25  March 2024, which demands an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during the Holy Month of Ramadan.

President Ramaphosa said,” We  must seize the opportunity presented by this Security Council Resolution to create a firm foundation for a permanent ceasefire and the resumption of negotiations. We need to stop the carnage and begin walking a path to peace”. 

The President called on the United Nations Security Council to ensure that there is compliance with the resolution, which is binding on the parties.

South Africa remains concerned that in over five months, since the escalation the conflict, thousands have lost their lives, including over 13 000 children.   

As Resolution 2728 notes, there is an “urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance and to reinforce the protection of civilians in the entire Gaza Strip”.

It is therefore vital that the parties comply with the Security Council, “demand for the lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale, in line with international humanitarian law, as well as Resolution 2712 (2023) and 2720 (2023)”.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa.