KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Her Excellency Ms. Nardos Bekele-Thomas
Chief Executive Officer
African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD)

Africa Energy Investment Forum
Hosted by the African Energy Chamber
Sandton, South Africa – 21 November 2025
Theme: "The Architecture of Implementation: Financing Africa’s Energy Future"

Opening

Your Excellency Honourable Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, Minister of Energy & Electricity of the Republic of South Africa;
Your Excellency Honourable Gwede Mantashe, Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources of the Republic of South Africa;
Excellencies, Distinguished Ministers;
Mr. NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber;
Leaders of African and Global Financial Institutions, Captains of Industry, Ladies and Gentlemen.

• A very good morning to you all.

• I am delighted to be here.

• First, I want to thank the African Energy Chamber for convening this essential forum.

• We gather here in Johannesburg at a critical juncture.

• The global energy landscape is in flux, driven by decarbonization, digitalization, and geopolitical realignment.

• And at the center of this transition stands our continent, Africa.

• We are all familiar with the paradox.

Africa’s Energy Paradox

• Africa possesses 60% of the world’s best solar resources, vast untapped hydropower, significant natural gas reserves, and critical minerals for the green transition.

• Yet nearly 600 million Africans still lack access to reliable electricity.

• This is the single greatest impediment to industrialization, the AfCFTA, and Agenda 2063.

The forum’s theme calls for real solutions. AUDA-NEPAD’s focus is on moving capital from boardrooms to the grid — fast and at scale.

Africa’s Integrated Energy Future

• The future is not fragmented or ad-hoc — it is integrated, efficient, and continental.

• The Continental Power System Masterplan (CMP) is the engineering and economic blueprint for the Africa Single Electricity Market (AfSEM) — the world’s largest interconnected energy market.

CMP Objectives

• Optimize and connect Africa’s diverse energy resources

• Enable cross-border electricity trade

• Reduce generation costs

• Enhance energy security across all 55 member states

Key bottleneck:
Not finance — but the chronic shortage of bankable, investment-ready projects.

AUDA-NEPAD’s Implementation Instruments

1. Service Delivery Mechanism (SDM) – "The Accelerator"

• Provides technical expertise, coordination, and capacity building

• Moves cross-border projects from concept → feasibility

2. PIDA Quality Label (PQL) – “Africa’s Seal of Approval”

• Rigorous technical and political vetting

• Reduces investor uncertainty

• Fast-tracks due diligence

3. Portfolio Project Preparation

• Shift from isolated projects to integrated economic corridors

• Combines energy, transport, ICT, and industrial hubs

• Diversifies risk and attracts global and domestic capital

Financing Africa’s Energy Future

African DFIs Rising

Members of the Alliance for African Multilateral Financial Institutions (AAMFI) —
AfDB, Afreximbank, AFC, TDB, Africa50 —
are deploying innovative instruments, taking on early-stage risk, and crowding in private capital.

Luanda Financing Summit Breakthrough

• Moved from pledges to a coordinated financing roadmap

• Targeted priority PIDA corridors

Private Sector Must Be Mobilized

• Standardize PPPs, BOT models, EPC contracts

• Prioritize local content

• Embrace Asset Recycling to unlock dormant capital

Domestic Capital Is the Game Changer

• African pension and sovereign wealth funds hold $1.5 trillion AUM

• Through the 5% Agenda, AUDA-NEPAD is directing part of this into African infrastructure

Productive Use of Energy (PUE)

Energy must power:

• SMEs

• Mechanized agriculture

• Digital services

• Industrial hubs

PUE creates:

• Clear revenue streams

• Investor confidence

• Socioeconomic transformation

Closing Remarks

• Africa has the blueprint (CMP)

• The bankability tools (SDM & PQL)

• The strategy (corridor-based project preparation)

• The capital (DFIs + institutional investors)

What Africa needs now:
Accelerated execution and radical collaboration.

Message to investors:
Africa is ready.
The risks are manageable.
The opportunities are unprecedented.
Join us as partners and co-owners of Africa’s energy future.

Let us move from commitments to commissioning,
and turn an energized, industrialized, and integrated Africa into reality.

I thank you.