NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Kenya has the potential to generate about 15,000 gigawatts of geothermal power by 2030, placing it ahead of other Eastern Africa countries in the renewable energy race. To achieve this energy mile however, the country will have to reduce the lengthy process involved in establishing a geothermal plant, a new report says.According to the Nordic Green to Scale for Countries technical report released recently in Nairobi, it takes between five to seven years for any country in Eastern Africa to establish a geothermal plant.This is because none of the governments in the region have the equipment, technology and expertise to develop this source of power, and have to rely on imports, says the report by researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI).“The venture is also capital-intensive, leaving only established private companies to pursue this development opportunity,” the report says.But the government has not actively involved the private sector in this sector, a situation that could explain the bureaucracy involved in geothermal development in the country, argues Mbeo Ogeya, a research fellow at SEI.Yet Kenya is being considered as a host for the Africa Geothermal Centre of Excellence by the UN Environment, says Ogeya.“The government needs to actively encourage private sector engagement by for instance zero rating the equipment and appliances for geothermal generation if the country is to achieve its full potential,” says Ogeya.Corruption is another setback that is delaying geothermal development in the country, according to local media reports.In 2016, top officials at the Geothermal Development Company (GDC) were hounded out of office and are facing corruption related cases.Auditor-General reports also say GDC failed to pay Ksh. 1.4 billion in corporate taxes in 2015, and was slapped with penalty of Ksh. 405.6 million.Yet GDC remains one of the best funded state companies, where Treasury allocates it Ksh. 7 billion from the national budget every year.“The research is right, the policy is correct, but the approach in implementing both policy and research is where we miss the point,” says Ogeya.Among the policy recommendations by the report is for the government to provide concessional loans and letters of guarantee to private developers in Kenya. This will reduce the risk of investment, hence encourage private sector actors to be involved, argues the report.It also challenges the government to introduce regulations supporting the assembling of geothermal equipment in the country “This will encourage growth of local industries and involvement of local actors along the geothermal value chain,” says the report.Kenya is leading in geothermal power generation in the region but the country has only exploited 0.62 gigawatts of the natural resource, the report says.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (PAMACC News) - Sponsors of development projects in Africa, borrowers, lenders, and public and private sector investors meet in South Africa to accelerate the continent’s investment opportunities in sectors not limited to energy, infrastructure, transport and utilities, industry, agriculture, ICT and Telecoms, water and sanitation and health and education.According to a statement from the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), the forum targets a total pipeline of 230 projects worth over US$208 billion.According to the bank, 28 boardroom sessions will curate, screen and ensure the projects are bankable and reach financial close. A total of 61 deals estimated at more than US$40 billion will feature in Boardroom Sessions, while another US$28 billion worth of deals will be showcased to investors at a marketplace Gallery Walk.Victor Oladokun, director of communications for the bank that each year, Africa has a deficit in investment funding worth US$130-170 billion, “half of that represents an infrastructure financing gap which we are trying to reach.”The Forum also includes a co-guarantee platform that will develop and deploy innovative instruments to de-risk private sector investments at scale, thus boosting investor confidence.According to the AfDB President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the forum is a collective deal of the century for investment in and the development of Africa, focusing on advancing projects to bankable stages, raising capital and accelerating the financial closure of deals.“I do not seek aid, I seek investment for Africa,” said Dr Akinwumi.To facilitate this, global financial institutions such as Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA), Africa 50, Afreximbank, European Investment Bank (EIB), Trade and Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank, have come together to form solid strategic alliances around the new venture.Ronnie Ntuli, the Executive Chairman for the Thelo Group described the forum as “a unique opportunity for Africans to partner with global capacity and the private sector. “It is an investor market…where all these partners converge to take advantage of tremendous opportunities,” he said.South African Deputy Director of the National Treasury Vuyelwa Vumendlini said that the investment forum provides a continental complement to the country’s recent investment forum which successfully attracted more than US$14 billion in investments.According to the AfDB, African businesses are rapidly growing in number and sophistication, presenting excellent investment opportunities with relatively high returns, but the challenge of positioning themselves for consideration in front of institutional investors and global corporate remains.The forum, which takes place between 7 and 9 November, 2018 is hosted by the Government of South Africa, the AfDB and several multi-lateral development partners.Discussions will focus on specific projects, sectors, investors, and themes. Others will have country or regional focus. Co-financing and collaborations between investors will also be a key focus area at this event. The inaugural Africa Investment Forum will feature a session on Championing Investments− an investment conversation with African Heads of State to highlight concrete and transformative actions for a new business landscape in Africa, including collective efforts to facilitate private investments.

KWALE, Kenya (PAMACC News) - Expansive lush sugarcane plantations stretching to 8000 hectares in Kenya’s semi arid Kwale County along the coastal line is a clear testimony that irrigated agriculture could be the magic bullet for a green revolution in Africa. Yields at the Kwale sugar plantation are higher than they would be were it rain-fed, and there is no need to worry about variations in seasonal rainfall, said Pamela Ogada, the general manager for the KISCOL Sugar Company, which owns the site. Irrigation has been "the magic bullet" for the global agricultural revolution, said Prof Nuhu Hatibu, the regional head of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), which works to improve farming across the continent. Now AGRA has said it will work to mobilize billions of dollars in cash and kind through different partners to ensure that smallholder farmers - from individuals to cooperatives - can benefit from irrigation.This $9 billion, according to Hatibu was promised by the World Bank, and it will be through loans to governments. The World Bank has pledged to work with the African Development Bank and other organisations to provide the money to African governments to improve irrigation, said Steven Schonberger, the World Bank's global lead for water in agriculture. Financing for the effort is still being put together, Schonberger said, but "we are very optimistic about it because a lot of financing is already there."The money could begin to flow as soon as 2019, he said. The project will target water from multiple sources that include rivers, streams, stored rain water and groundwater. They are still in the planning stage, and so far they cannot tell how many African countries will express interest, and have not decided when the funding will be rolled out. AGRA will help countries develop national strategies and also capacity building. The starting point according to Hatibu will be mapping of the groundwater aquifers in various countries before deciding on which crops to be grown. He says that AGRA will have an microfinance facility known as ‘Irrigation Fund’ through which the private sector can access money for putting up the infrastructure, such as constructing dams, wells, piping and different forms of storage. Nearly all countries in Africa set up large projects post-independence to support irrigation and mechanisation programs after independence, Hatibu said. But they were not properly implemented, and all failed. "What happened in other countries - those failures pushed them to look for solutions. But in Africa, we got paralysed and declared that irrigation was bad," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Raj Shah, the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, one of AGRA's key funders, said Africa's challenge was not over-irrigation but under-irrigation."Compared to any other agriculture-producing economy on the planet, Africa uses very little irrigation and very little fertiliser," he said. And, he added, the Green Revolution should be unique to Africa and should take water scarcity into account. "Especially now that it's been 40 years and we know how to avoid the negative…

ACCRA, Ghana (PAMACC News) - The demand for cocoa remains high, with increasing consumption of cocoa products by emerging economies which is expected to increase in the coming decades.However, the cost of producing the beans continues to increase, yields are declining and the negative impacts of climate change continue to threaten the already poor smallholder cocoa farmers.The cocoa sector has also seen very limited innovations and new investments while cocoa trees and farmers continue to age.“One of the impacts of this dwindling productivity is the removal of shade trees from farms and the expansion of cocoa cultivation into areas of rainforest,” said Harm Duiker, Country Director of SNV Netherlands Development Organisation. “As a result, globally, cocoa is counted among the major driver of deforestation and biodiversity loss”.As a forest shade grown tree, cocoa is a crop that thrives in areas of high biodiversity and tropical forests landscapes.Farmers and scientists alike recognize that shade trees are vital to reducing both ecological and economic risks, including maintenance of soil fertility and moisture, weed suppression and pest and disease control.They also acknowledge shade trees play an important role in climate adaption in cocoa system.However, there is increasing demand for scientific evidence of ecological and economic benefits of trees in cocoa systems.Recent studies have contested the benefits claimed to be associated with cocoa agroforestry, including mitigating adverse climate effects, pathogen or disease regulation, and more importantly improvements in soil fertility.The Cocoa DialogueThe national dialogue on cocoa agroforestry systems therefore had the objective of consolidating evidence-based ecological and economic benefits of cocoa agroforestry systems, identifying gaps in knowledge and to ensure consistency in promoting cocoa agroforestry science, policy and practice in Ghana.It was organised by SNV Ghana in collaboration with the Ghana Cocoa Board, the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources, KNUST and International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA).The event attracted experts who observed that gaps in science and practice, and inconsistencies in the promotion of cocoa agroforestry as well as land and tree tenure bottlenecks constitute major challenges to the rapid adoption of cocoa agroforestry systems among smallholder cocoa farmers in Ghana.They called for increased research to fill the gaps in evidence-base science and the practice of cocoa agroforestry systems in Ghana.Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Ahia Clottey, the Deputy Director Cocoa Health and Extension Division (CHED), reiterated COCOBOD’s commitment to promoting cocoa agroforestry under its recently launched cocoa rehabilitation project.He said the current programme targets only 156,400ha out of the 700,000 total rehabilitation need of the entire cocoa landscape of Ghana.He therefore called for stakeholders’ investment into cocoa rehabilitation in order to increase productivity of current land under cultivation in Ghana.Expert presentations and discussions were made on the current state of knowledge on soil improvement, soil nutrient and water competition, disease and pest control, trees species recommendation in shaded cocoa systems.According to Prof. Boateng Kyeremeh from the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources, KNUST, the realities of climate change vis-a-vis sustainability show the importance of holding the national dialogue to help farmers built resilience.He believes Ghana’s cocoa…