The government is set to save about US$300 million following successful renegotiations with Independent Power Producers (IPPs), which have reduced the sector’s outstanding debt from US$1.5 billion to US$1.2 billion.
The disclosure was made by Ben Boakye, Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), who serves on the committee that led the restructuring talks.
He explained that the process was carefully designed to ease the financial burden on the government while safeguarding investor confidence in the power sector.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Future of Energy Conference hosted by ACEP, Mr. Boakye commended the cooperation of the IPPs.
“The IPPs have been very magnanimous, even though we have a binding contract and agreements with them. They have been magnanimous enough to give us a haircut, which I am sure the minister will announce at some point.
“We are just here to help to make the power sector sustainable. We are looking close to about US$300 million on the debt and also over a billion in future payments,” he said.
The long-standing debt burden has in recent years strained relations between government and IPPs, with some producers shutting down operations due to non-payment.
These disruptions occasionally affected power supply and raised concerns about the country’s energy security.
John Jinapor interacting with keynote speakers at the Future of Energy Conference 2025
By Adnan Adams Mohammed
Ghana’s Energy Minister, John Abdulai Jinapor, has called on governments, businesses, investors, and civil society to work together to address Africa’s energy challenges.
Speaking at the Future of Energy Conference 2025, Minister Jinapor emphasized the need for collaborative efforts to ensure a sustainable energy future for the continent.
The conference, themed “Financing Africa’s Energy Future: Unlocking Investments for Energy Access and Economic Transformation,” brought together stakeholders to discuss the critical role of energy in driving economic growth, industrialization, and social development in Africa.
It is estimated that around US$500 billion is needed in Africa to close the energy poverty gap. Also, over 600 million Africans lack electricity and nearly a billion rely on traditional biomass for cooking.
“US$500 billion is the cost for sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to close the energy poverty gap & transition to a sustainable basis”, Suneeta Kaimal, President and Chief Executive Officer of NRGI alarmed in her keynote address at the Future of Energy Conference 2025 (FEC 2025). “By contrast, in 2023, financing for clean & renewable energy in all developing countries, not just SSA, reached only US$22 billion.”
Suneeta Kaimal, President and CEO of NRGI
She further noted that, “Governments across Africa spend nearly 17 percent of their revenues on debt service—the highest of any developing region. Over half of Africans now live in countries that spend more on debt than on health or education.”
These are mind boggling statistics that challenge the reality of ‘Just Energy Transition’ and financing needs. Just a year ago, many still believed that bridging this massive financing gap might be achieved through “blended finance”. Blended finance is the idea that we use relatively small amounts of public finance to de-risk and leverage much larger flows of private investment. That was how the EU and the US managed to recover from the 2008 financial crisis.
Apparently, at the fourth Financing for Development Conference in Seville, Kenya helped drive the launch of a bold new coalition, joined by Benin, Sierra Leone, Somalia and others. Together, they committed to taxing premium air travel to raise new, additional, and predictable flows of public finance for sustainable development.
If implemented globally, this measure alone could raise more than US$80 billion in revenue—not loans or aid—every year. To put this in perspective: the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that achieving universal access to modern energy in Africa requires only US$25 billion each year.
At first glance, this is just another tax. But it is far more significant. It represents the kind of financial innovation that African leaders can replicate, scale up, and channel to unlock energy access and economic transformations for Africa.
Meanwhile, Hon Jinapor highlighted Ghana’s initiatives to promote sustainable energy, including the Energy Transition Framework, Renewable Energy and Green Transition Fund, and utility-scale solar projects. He also emphasized the importance of a just transition to clean energy, ensuring that it does not undermine energy affordability, industrial growth, or jobs.
“We must mobilize sustainable financing mechanisms, derisk energy investments, and scale up innovation and research in clean technologies,” Minister Jinapor said. “By working together, we can light up Africa, power the engines of transformation, and ensure that the future of energy is the future we all deserve.”
The Minister’s call to action was met with enthusiasm from the audience, who recognized the urgent need for collective action to address Africa’s energy challenges. As the continent continues to grapple with energy poverty and climate change, the Future of Energy Conference 2025 provided a timely platform for stakeholders to share ideas, collaborate, and commit to decisive action .
In his presentation, Yaw Appiah Lartey, Africa Head of Infrastructure & Capital Projects at Deloitte, drummed home the fact that, even in Africa’s high-risk markets, projects can attract investment when they are structured, de-risked, and impact-driven.
“The path to bankability lies in blending innovation with risk mitigation, strong partnerships, and alignment with both investor expectations and local realities”, he pointed.
“However, the question remains, How do we ensure more of Africa’s clean energy ideas make that leap from concept to investment?”, he quizzed.
Subsequently, in his closing remarks, Ben Boakye, Executive Director of African Center for Energy Policy (ACEP) gave key highlights of the Future Of Energy Conference 2025, which included; the fact that, true energy access goes beyond grid connections—it means ensuring that households, businesses, schools, hospitals, and industries cannot only access power, but also afford it and use it productively. Energy access is a matter of dignity, equity, and opportunity.
“Africa’s energy future is inseparable from its broader development agenda. Building sustainable, inclusive, and competitive energy systems is essential for resilience, poverty reduction, and positioning the continent as a strong voice in the global energy transition”, he reiterated.
“Energy transition must be shaped by Africa’s own interests and realities. With a projected population of 2.5 billion by 2050, universal, affordable, and reliable energy access will be critical for unlocking productivity, raising household incomes, advancing gender equity, and driving economic transformation.
“Given that African governments are already financially overstretched, they cannot carry the burden of risk alone. Innovative financial instruments must be designed to de-risk investments while attracting private sector capital. At the same time, governments must strengthen their capacity to negotiate, structure, and manage bankable projects—engaging professional transaction advisors early to avoid poorly structured contracts.
“Finally, regional cooperation through integrated energy markets and cross-border infrastructure will be vital for achieving cost efficiency, ensuring energy security, and accelerating Africa’s transition to a just and inclusive energy future.”
At the Future of Energy Conference (FEC) spearheaded by the Africa Center for Energy Policy (ACEP) and partners, women miners, industry leaders, and governance experts gathered for a powerful side event moderated by Faith Mutete a small scale miner, Founder & CEO of Women in Mining Zimbabwe (WIM Zimbabwe) and Resource Governance Ambassadors under ACEP.
The session explored how energy, mining, and women’s leadership intersect to drive Africa’s just transition.
From Kenya, Michelle Mwambela of AWEIK (Association of Women in Extractives in Kenya) showcased an inspiring innovation: a solar-powered water pumping system developed through a hackathon. She explained how clean, off-grid energy improves safety, increases productivity, and creates opportunities for value addition and green skilling for women miners.
Georgette Banzi, CEO of Women in Mining Ghana (WIM Ghana), shared success stories of gender-smart financing models that enabled women miners to grow from small-scale operations into sustainable businesses. She stressed that financing women in mining is a pathway to strengthening entire communities.
From Tanzania, Lightness Mushi of TWIMMI (Tanzania Women in Mining and Mineral Industry) lifted grassroots voices. She described how women miners often face barriers such as limited financial literacy, poor access to equipment, and cultural biases. Yet, she highlighted creative resilience, like women repurposing traditional stoves into stools, showing how local innovation can transform livelihoods.
Mahumuza Diders of Uganda focused on governance, emphasizing the need for policies and partnerships that hold both government and industry accountable to ensure equitable access to energy for women miners.
Joelle from Madagascar, representing Transparency International, underscored the importance of accountability and anti-corruption measures in extractives. She warned of exploitative foreign investment models and argued that women’s inclusion is essential to safeguard community benefits.
As the discussion wrapped up, Faith Mutete shared her closing message:
👉 “Energy is not just power. Energy is a proxy indicator of development. When women miners access energy, communities thrive, productivity increases, and Africa takes a bold step toward a just energy transition.”
Speaking in her capacity as ACEP Resource Governance Ambassador, she added: “I have a lot to do back home in Zimbabwe to continue supporting women miners in renewable energy, governance, and innovation. This is only the beginning—and many thanks to the Africa Center for Energy Policy (ACEP) for making this a reality.”
Faith also serves as a Technical Advisor at the Investing in African Mining Indaba under the Just Energy Transition Committee, where she continues to amplify the voices of women miners in shaping Africa’s extractive and energy future.
The session concluded with a united call to action: scale innovation, finance women miners, and embed accountability—placing women at the center of Africa’s mining and energy transition.
Sub-Saharan Africa is staring at a staggering $500 billion bill to bridge the energy poverty gap and transition to a sustainable energy system, according to Suneeta Kaimal, President and CEO of the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI).
Speaking at the Future of Energy Conference 2025 in Accra, Kaimal highlighted the enormous financing gap, noting that in 2023, financing for clean and renewable energy in all developing countries reached only $22 billion.
The stark reality is that over 600 million Africans lack access to electricity, and nearly a billion rely on traditional biomass for cooking, perpetuating cycles of poverty and environmental degradation.
Kaimal emphasized that innovative financing solutions are necessary to address this challenge, citing the potential for taxing premium air travel to raise new revenue streams for sustainable development
Among some of the key challenges she noted included mounting debt burden, financing gap and unsustainable lending.
According to available statistics, African governments spend nearly 17% of their revenues on debt service, the highest of any developing region, with over half of Africans living in countries that spend more on debt than on health or education.
It is required that $500 billion is needed for sub-Saharan Africa’s energy transition, a significant challenge, with current financing models falling short. To avert this, new lending models are needed to mobilize private capital at fair interest rates, avoiding overburdening public budgets.
The NRGI Chief proffered that, to remedy the current situation; strategic, inclusive transitions are needed. Emphasising that, context-specific solutions aligned with development ambitions and public priorities are essential for successful energy transitions.
Also, leveraging Africa’s immense resources, including 30% of the world’s transition mineral reserves, can help increase public resources and drive sustainable development and exploring new financing mechanisms, such as the tax on premium air travel, can provide predictable revenue streams for sustainable development.
John Jinapor interacting with keynote speakers at the Future of Energy Conference 2025
The Minister for Energy, Hon. John Abdulai Jinapor, has emphasized the need for collaborative efforts to address Africa’s energy challenges and unlock the continent’s economic potential.
Speaking at the Future of Energy Conference 2025, held at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra, Minister Jinapor highlighted the critical role energy plays in driving industrialization, digital transformation, and social development.
Among major concerns the Minister amplified in his speech are staggering statistics that over 600 million Africans lack access to electricity, and more than one billion rely on traditional biomass for cooking, hindering economic growth and perpetuating inequality. Thereby stressing on the importance of cooperation between governments, the private sector, and development institutions to transform Africa’s energy sector.
The Minister advised Africa’s path to a green transition must be carefully calibrated to ensure energy affordability, industrial growth, and job creation, with regional value chain development and local processing of critical minerals being crucial.
In the case of Ghana’s Energy Transition Framework, which aims to decarbonize the power and petroleum sectors while maintaining energy security, with initiatives such as scaling up renewables, clean cooking solutions, and green hydrogen studies.
Minister’s Call to Action:
Hon Jinapor in ending his speech made a critical call to participants to move beyond brainstorming ideas to commitment and actions. Setting the stage, he indicated that competitive and sustainable financing mechanisms, including bonds markets, carbon trading, and green funds, are essential for Africa’s energy future.
He noted that, sovereign guarantees, policy predictability, and transparent regulation can help mitigate risks associated with energy investments as well as scaling up innovation and research in clean technologies adapted to Africa’s realities is vital for a sustainable energy future.
The Minister urged governments, businesses, investors, and civil society to work together, make commitments, and act decisively to transform Africa’s energy sector.
Participants of 2025 edition of the Anglophone Africa Summer School on Extractive Industries Governance
By Adnan Adams Mohammed
The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) Africa Director, Nafi Quarshie, has raised critical questions on the efforts on energy transition with the spotlight on Africa’s consideration on the global scale.
Notable among the mind-boggling rhetorics to the participants selected from all Anglophone African countries in the media, CSOs and state actors in the extractive industries was whether Africa “will we be rule-takers or rule-makers” in the global effort and how participants advocacy and policy engagement must be shaped.
Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) Africa Director, Nafi Quarshie
“Will our minerals power prosperity at home or fuel green revolutions elsewhere? Will we seize this moment to confront historical injustices, or will we watch inequalities deepen under new guises?”, she quizzed.
The energy transition offers socioeconomic and environmental benefits for countries that can position themselves, leverage their abundant transition mineral resources and foster the development and deployment of innovative technologies. However, corruption risks and governance challenges could potentially threaten these positive outcomes. To seize the opportunities and manage the risks, extractive sector players advocate that resource-rich African countries must adopt appropriate economic policies that integrate the requirements of the energy transition. These policies must ensure a transparent and inclusive governance of the sector.
Below is the full speech:
It is both a pleasure and a profound honor to welcome you, on behalf of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, to the 2025 edition of the Anglophone Africa Summer School on Extractive Industries Governance, organized in partnership with the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP).
The urgency of climate change is reshaping the contours of global power and development. The energy transition, long theorized, is now underway—disruptive, inevitable, and complex. For African countries, especially those rich in oil, gas, cobalt, lithium, bauxite, and copper, this moment holds both peril and promise.
The question before us is not whether Anglophone Africa will be affected by this transition, but rather, how we will respond. Will we be rule-takers or rule-makers? Will our minerals power prosperity at home or fuel green revolutions elsewhere? Will we seize this moment to confront historical injustices, or will we watch inequalities deepen under new guises?
At NRGI, these are not abstract questions. They are at the heart of our work and our vision. As a global organization with a deep commitment to the region, we see this transition not only as a technical or economic challenge, but as a governance opportunity—a chance to demand transparency, elevate community voices, confront corruption, and insist on justice.
It is also a test of leadership. For governments, yes. But also for all of us—civil society, media, academia, parliament.
Because make no mistake: critical minerals are fast becoming the new oil. They are redrawing geopolitical alliances. They are generating staggering revenue projections. They are attracting attention from investors, companies, and major powers who see in Africa a source of supply, but not always a partner in shaping the terms. We must not allow the past to repeat itself.
In this region, too many of us know the bitter paradox: countries rich in resources yet burdened by poverty, by pollution, by broken contracts and broken promises.
This Summer School, and the conversations we will have over the next two weeks, must be a space to disrupt that pattern.
We must ask:
How do we ensure that the wealth from transition minerals translates into jobs, infrastructure, education, and public services for our citizens, not just shareholder profits?
How do we safeguard our environment even as demand for minerals intensifies?
How do we empower women and youth in the governance of energy and resources—not as beneficiaries, but as decision-makers and leaders?
This is why NRGI is here. Our mission is to ensure that citizens of resource-rich countries benefit from their natural wealth. And that mission takes on a new urgency in the age of transition.
We are investing in evidence and analysis. We are partnering with local actors to improve contract transparency, revenue tracking, fiscal policy, and civic space. We are asking tough questions about just transitions—and demanding answers rooted in justice, not just in carbon metrics.
But we cannot do it alone. You—today’s participants—are our allies, our critics, our co-creators. What you bring to this space matters.
The knowledge shared here, the relationships built, the ideas generated—these are not academic exercises. They are the building blocks of a more just, more equitable, more sustainable future.
Let us not forget: the energy transition is not only about technology, it is about power. And who holds it? And for what purpose?
As we open this year’s Summer School, I invite each of you to approach the coming days with courage, curiosity, and a fierce sense of purpose.
Let us challenge assumptions. Let us be bold in our ideas. Let us be uncompromising in our pursuit of justice. Because if Africa is to lead in this transition—not just supply it—we must think differently, act decisively, and govern boldly.
AFREIKH
The Anglophone Africa Extractive Industries Knowledge Hub (AFREIKH) aims to bridge knowledge gaps in the energy and extractive sectors in Africa through training and capacity building to improve effective extractive sector governance. This year, the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) and Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) will host the one-week intensive summer school on extractive industries governance in Accra, Ghana.
This intensive summer school will convene extractive sector stakeholders across Anglophone Africa to delve into the critical issues, challenges, and evolving landscape of Africa’s extractive industries, while navigating the ongoing energy transition. Participants will also gain practical insights by attending the Future of Energy Conference (FEC), which offers a platform to explore innovative solutions and strategies for a sustainable energy future for Africa.
Objectives
The training aims to equip stakeholders in the energy and extractive sectors with the knowledge, skills, and tools to enhance the impact of their work and promote transparent, responsible natural resource management in Africa.
Key topics include:
Understanding the Extractive Sector in Africa
The Global Energy Transition and Africa
Diversification Strategies in Resource-Dependent Economies
Strengthening Green Industrialization Regional Value Chains for Critical Minerals & Clean Energy Technologies
Participants
The summer school targets civil society organizations (CSOs), media, and government actors working to promote good governance in extractive industries. Graduates join a vibrant alumni network that offers continued mentorship, professional development, and a platform for learning, collaboration, and collective action across Africa.
To be eligible for selection, applicants must:
Hold a position in an institution engaged in extractive or energy sector governance (e.g., parliament, academia, CSOs, or media).
Have at least three years of relevant experience in the oil, gas, mining, or energy sectors.
Demonstrate strong interest and understanding of policy and governance issues related to natural resources, including energy transition.
Be able to fully participate in the entire program.
Have a good command of written and spoken English.
The African Center for Energy Policy (ACEP) has reported that, inactive oil blocks which numbers more than 10 have denied Ghana of about US$923 million as at 2019.
Ghana since 2007 has awarded 18 oil blocks to various oil exploration and production companies. Out this, only three blocks have been developed and producing, that include the Jubilee field, TEN fields and the SGN field.
Although, according a report from the Petroleum Commission has indicated that, four inactive oil blocks have been canceled so far, which includes the Shallow Water Cape Three Point, Onshore/Offshore Keta Delta blocks among others.
“Inactivity by oil block holders is causing the country to losses huge revenues as well as denying the country of potential investors”, Samuel Bokoe, an energy consultant has said during a training session organised for media persons and CSOs in Accra, last week. “The Petroleum Commission and relevant stakeholders must up their game to cancel all inactive oil block contracts so they can be available for the next bid rounds.”
The training organised by the Natural Resorce Governance Institute (NRGI) to help enhance the capacity of CSOs and media to use publicly available contracts in the Petroleum Register to demand accountability brought together officials from the Petroleum Commission, selected media persons anti-corruption and energy focused CSOs for a day training.
The training sought to create awareness about the petroleum register and, provide skills required for CSOs and journalists to understand how to navigate the petroleum register.
Some participants who spoke to the Economy Times after the training testified that, they have acquired skills needed to analyze and understand petroleum contracts including other publicly disclosed contracts to complement the efforts of oversight actors and regulators in monitoring these contracts.
