Officials from four eastern African countries are meeting in Nairobi later this month in a conference tackling means to improve electricity transmission and distribution in east Africa.
Powering East Africa is scheduled for 25-27 March in the Kenyan capital, gathering energy ministers and senior officials from Rwanda, Zambia, Kenya and Uganda, along with other partners, including the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
The conference is meant to address power transmission deficits in east Africa and their consequences on power projects and development in the region.
“Despite over US$8 billion of project investments in greenfield projects in South Africa alone, transmission continues to collapse, significantly impacting the social and political landscape of the continent. In addition, this threatens the bankability of future generation projects already under development,” the conference’s website said.
Power generation and availability have increasingly become a pressing development requirement for the growing populations of the mainly impoverished continent.
It was that need which Ethiopia and five other Nile Basin countries voiced for the construction of Nile River dams starting in 2010, a move which rattled Egypt and Sudan for fears of diminished Nile water flow.
