Japan announces $10 bn African Infrastructure Plan and support for geothermal
Olkaria I Geothermal Plant (Source: Toshiba Press Release)
Alexander Richter
29 Aug 2016
Japan announces bold African Infrastructure Plan worth $10 billion to support modernizing electricity, power and transport systems. Part of the support will go towards geothermal power projects using Japanese technology.
Announced last week already, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has now announced and provided details about a a bold new African infrastructure plan worth US $10 billion. The plan is to be implemented by the African Development Bank (AfDB) over the next three years raising the stature of the Abidjan-based financial institution in achieving Africa’s development.
The infrastructure investment package announced by the Japanese Prime Minister will focus on modernizing electricity, power and urban transport systems in order to improve the connectivity of Africa.
“Taking this initiative, Japan will appropriate approximately US $10 billion to Africa over the next three years for building infrastructure. A portion of this will be executed through cooperation with the African Development Bank (AfDB),” Prime Minister Abe told leaders from African states during the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) in Nairobi on Saturday.
The Japanese Prime Minister said the support package aims to increase the electricity generation capacity by 2,000 megawatts as well as increasing the geothermal power generation using Japanese technologies. The increased power generation capacity is focused to reach 3 million households by 2022.
Japan has also pledged to put the advances of its domestic education policies at the disposal of African industries. Japan hopes to provide access to its educational system to African students by promoting engineers to learn from its kosen, or “colleges of technology”. This system aims to train at least 30,000 engineers to support the foundations of Africa’s industrialisation.
The initiative was announced at the recently held TICAD summit in Nairobi, Kenya, that attracted several African leaders and heads of international development institutions, including Akinwumi Adesina, President of the AfDB.
Source: African Development Bank
