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Iceland’s Development Agency signs cooperation agreement with African Union

Iceland’s Development Agency signs cooperation agreement with African Union Valley view at Suswa, Kenya (source: flickr/ Wajahat Mahmood, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 11 Sep 2013

The African Union Commission and the Icelandic International Development Agency (ICEIDA) sign MOU for a cooperation in geothermal energy development in the African Rift Valley countries.

The African Union Commission (AUC) and The Icelandic International Development Agency (ICEIDA) last week signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for cooperation in Geothermal Energy Development in African Rift Valley Countries.

The MoU was signed by the Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy of AUC, Dr. Elham M. A. Ibrahim, and the Director General of the ICEIDA, Mr. Engilbert Gudmundsson at the AUC headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the presence of the director of infrastructure and energy, Aboubakari Baba-Moussa and the representatives of the other AUC departments.

In 2012 the AUC, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund via KfW Entwicklungsbank (KfW) established the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility (GRMF) amounting 50 million euros for African Rift Valley countries to provide grants for geothermal resource exploration and drilling projects. GRMF initially started with five pilot countries namely Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Now the GRMF covers a total of eleven countries including Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Djibouti, Eritrea and Zambia. For this reason AUC is mobilizing additional funds to finance projects in the eleven countries.

ICEIDA is now implementing a Geothermal Exploration Project funded by ICEIDA and Nordic Development Fund (NDF) in up to the thirteen (13) East African Countries namely: Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, DRC Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The Geothermal Exploration Project provides support to eligible countries for geothermal surface explorations and capacity building. The Project is a part of a geothermal compact between the World Bank and Iceland.

According to the signed MOU, the Commission and ICEIDA will cooperate in order to develop geothermal energy in the African Rift Valley countries. Possible areas of collaboration include:

  • Developing and implementing geothermal policy, regulatory, institutional and investment guidelines;
  • Strengthening capacity and provide technical assistance to the AU Commission and to AU Member States;
  • Promoting the necessary policy to decision makers, legislators, and the general public on the benefits of geothermal energy development and the enabling environment required to attract private investment as well as public private partnership and bring projects to closure;
  • Supporting the development of geothermal database and database management plan at regional and national levels and facilitate easy accessibility for both developers and partners;
  • Promoting dialogue, learning and information sharing in the field of geothermal energy, among donor organizations and international financial institutions, for instance by organizing donor coordination meetings;
  • Supporting the Commission to explore the potential to establish Regional Geothermal Training Institute with the view to provide an organized skill training Centre and skill-improvement system for the professionals in the geothermal energy science (Geophysics, geochemist, geology, drilling, environment, geothermal plant technology and operation).

The AUC through its Department of Infrastructure and Energy has signed similar MoU with the German Government and EU-Infrastructure Trust Fund through KfW, the USAID and UNEP for the development of geothermal energy resource in African Rift Valley countries.”

Source: African Union