President William Ruto has urged delegates to capitalize on Africa’s un-precedented geo-economic opportunity, especially given the availability of key minerals in Africa.
According to Ruto, Africa should now pursue value addition processes such as smelting, refining, assembly, and even the production of electric vehicles .
Speaking at KICC during the opening of Africa’s climate summit,President Ruto says Kenya intends to expand its national grid from 3 Giga Watts to 100 GigaWatts by 2040.
This according to Ruto will ensure that 100 percent of the power in the grid is renewable.
“Our national grid currently operates at three Giga Watts. Our ambition is audacious yet achievable: 100 percent renewable by 2030 and a 100 Giga Watt grid, entirely renewable, by 2040,” he said.
“The continent has enough potential to be entirely self-sufficient with the mix of wind, solar, geothermal, sustainable biomass and hydropower,” President Ruto told delegates on Monday.
According to Ruto, one of the challenges is bridging the investment gap so that the continent can meet its energy needs.
He believes that this can be addressed by creating sufficient demand to provide incentives for appropriate private investment in energy infrastructure development.
Ruto expressed confidence that Africa has the potential to power all energy needs with renewable resources and help other regions achieve the same.