• Renewables Rising
  • Posts
  • AfDB's electrification efforts hit a snag after exit of its major funder

AfDB's electrification efforts hit a snag after exit of its major funder

May 11, 2025

The US is withdrawing its funding support for the African Development Bank (AfDB) and its concessional financing arm, the African Development Fund (ADF), a $550 million annual cut. This comes at a time when the AfDB and the World Bank are committing $40 billion to connect more Africans by 2030. The ambition now hangs in the balance.

  • The Trump administration has been restructuring its policy to reduce its budget for foreign aid. Earlier this year, they shut down one of the main financing arms for African governments, USAID, affecting the Power Africa initiative.   

  • Yet, Africa is targeting an acceleration of its electrification efforts, aiming to connect 300 million people by 2030 and planned this with US support in mind. Now it’s back to the drawing board. Will there be an alternative solution?

  • Our take: Enabling AfDB to directly access international capital markets is no longer an option, but a necessity to bridge the widening financing gap… Read more (2 min)

Kenyan households grapple with the highest electricity prices in East Africa, paying three times more than Ethiopia, the country with the cheapest electricity in the region. For John Kaguo, a father of five residing in Muranga County, these high electricity prices, coupled with unreliable services, prompted him to switch to a solar home system.

  • "The increasing token prices from Kenya Power were really hitting our pockets each month, and the bills often seemed inaccurate," John explained during a recent conversation. The unreliability of the grid compounded the issues.

  • Though he enjoys the reliability of solar power, the current installed capacity cannot support energy-intensive activities like water pumping. And he plans to upgrade in future.

  • Click to read more about John's story.

Over the past two weeks, Renewables Rising has tracked over 80 open positions in renewable energy. Out of these, Sun King, an off-grid solar energy firm, is hiring for more than half of these roles. The company is expanding operations in parts of West Africa, particularly in Nigeria, where more than 25 managerial positions are currently open.

  • This week, managerial positions are advertised by companies such as Sun King, Yellow Door Energy, Rubicon, among others. It follows a hiring trend we have noticed over the past two months.

  • Wind technology roles, which rarely appear on our job boards, are sprouting. Siemens Gamesa, a wind technology specialist, is hiring wind technicians in Egypt.

  • To see the open roles, click here

South Africa’s power utility company hosts a delegation from Deloitte and AGSA at the Hex Battery Energy Storage System site in Worcester.

Events

🗓️ Get tickets for the Mauritius Clean Energy Week event 2025 (May 13)

🗓️ Attend Tanzania’s Renewable Energy Week event (May 26)

🗓️ Register for the 9th edition of Solar Africa 2025 (Oct 8)

Various 

💼 South Africa's Transmission Company interim CEO returns to Eskom

🤝 CrossBoundary partners with AIKO for 225 MW DRC solar panel supply

💸 Egypt and Greece reaffirm their commitment to the electricity export project

Seen on LinkedIn 

James Ahabyona, Sales Manager at Upya Technologies, says, “With repayment rates declining, renewable energy companies selling their products on a Pay-As-You-Go basis must adopt more robust tools to assess the creditworthiness of their prospective clients.”