SADC States to Enhance Cooperation on Funding Energy Projects

Mapolao Mokoena

NAIROBI. — Sadc member states have agreed to enhance cooperation to address policy challenges affecting funding for regional energy infrastructure projects and to find innovative ways to unlock projects from a funding and compliance point. 

This was reached at during a virtual workshop held by the SADC Secretariat in the Kenyan capital on Wednesday.

The workshop was held in collaboration with the Southern African Power Pool which runs the Accelerating Regional Energy Projects programme for the SADC. 

The programme aims to establish a sustainable framework of designing, preparing and financing regional generation and transmission infrastructure projects in SADC member states that would increase the number of projects in the construction phase.

Mapolao Mokoena, the director for infrastructure at the SADC Secretariat, said  that the gaps, risks and challenges facing SADC member states revolved around member states’ commitment to regional transnational projects, intergovernmental memoranda of understanding, tax and value-added tax issues on donor funds, and access and limitation to project development funding.

“Changes in priority of member states with respect to domestic and regional interconnected projects could be addressed through intervention from the SADC Secretariat at a ministerial level and designation of projects as Presidential Critical Infrastructure Project (PCIP) so that there is continuity.

“Under the PCIP, officials would be responsible for coordinating the various ministries. Ministers responsible for finance and investment could also engage at regional level to agree on currency, funding and sovereign guarantees to address these gaps and risks,” Mokoena said. 

— ChinaDaily.