5th ARE Energy Access Investment Forum moves to Africa

The Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE), partner of ALER, in partnership with the African Development Bank and GET.invest programme, organized the 5th ARE Energy Access Investment Forum that brought together more than 260 participants to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on March 13and 14, 2019.

The Forum, supported by SEforALL, Club-ER, ECREEE and UNIDO, convened public, private and other stakeholders with the goal to boost clean energy globally and in particular in Africa, where 599 million people still lack electricity. To intensify the exchange with players from and outside Africa, ARE also held its Annual General Meeting in conjunction with the Forum the day before.

In light of building strong links between the EU and Africa, ARE and ECREEE have pledged to support SMEs and start-ups to upscale decentralized renewable energy and cross-sectoral collaborations in the ECOWAS region. The Forum served to discuss latest trends and innovations as well as contributed to socioeconomic growth with 265 B2B matchmaking meetings being held between local, regional and international market players.

“As a first-time in Africa, the ARE team did a great job in mobilizing both private companies as well as financiers and government representatives in the off-grid space. It was a great place to our first B2B matchmaking service under the new European programme GET.invest.”, said Jan Cloin, GET.invest Deputy Team Leader. The B2B supported by the GET.invest programme gave participants the opportunity to meet potential business partners and advance projects during face-to-face B2B meetings.