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Campaign Update: November 2018

We're Hiring!

Power for All is hiring for several new positions, including a Director of Development, a Director of Operations, a Grant Manager, and Coordinators for several countries. See our new Careers page for full details. Power for All provides unique opportunities to motivated change-makers who want to help #endenergypoverty faster. A flexible and supportive environment, Power for All is comprised of dedicated professionals and mission-driven campaigners. Our footprint stretches across India, Africa, the European Union and the United States. Our team comes from different backgrounds and multiple continents, but we are united in our focus to accelerate an end to energy poverty. Join us!

#PoweringJobs Campaign Launched

With the goal of bridging the skills gap that increasingly threatens to derail universal electricity access, Power for All and a group of partners officially launched the #PoweringJobs campaign at the International Off-Grid Renewable Energy Conference (IOREC), held by IRENA in Singapore. IRENA and Power for All co-hosted a side event on jobs and skills, with participation from Rabia Ferroukhi of IRENA, Thomas Andre of Schneider Electric, Praveen Saxena of the Skills Council for Green Jobs, Harish Hande of SELCO Foundation and Isaac Mwathi of Hivos. The launch received widespread support on social media, with the #PoweringJobs hashtag attaining a reach of more than 1 million in just the first two weeks. The campaign also received widespread media attention, being featured by the World Economic Forum, CNBC Africa, the World Bank, the Economic Times of India and other leading national media in Rwanda, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania. 

Nigeria Continues to be Center of Activity

Our team in Nigeria continues to push the sector forward across many fronts. Some of our recent work includes:

Nigerian Energy Taskforce meets to review progress on tackling industry barriers: Nigeria’s Decentralized Renewable Energy (DRE) Taskforce, set up under the Scaling Off-Grid Energy (SOGE) project of USAID and Power Africa and implemented by Power for All, met November 12 to review progress on dismantling barriers that are preventing the growth of the industry. The meeting was attended by 25 members, who were briefed on a variety of topics, including state-level DRE101/X-Learning Workshops and the Platform for Energy Access Knowledge (PEAK). The taskforce also explored how to move forward on simplifying consumer payments, collaborative data sharing for the sector and zero tariffs and duties on imported components and panels, while also defining success parameters in these areas.

Nigeria Chapter of Africa Mini-Grids Association launches: the Nigeria chapter of the Africa Mini-Grid Developers Association (AMDA) launched on November 15 with about 10 mini-grid developers as founding members in Abuja, the country’s capital. The launch was attended by donor agencies, government organizations and private sector companies. The launch of the association was preceded by a two-day capacity building workshop for the members and key original equipment manufacturers in order to equip the developers with up-to-date knowledge on best equipment to deploy for their mini-grids. As the mini-grid sector prepares for rapid growth with the operationalization of the Rural Electrification Fund which will give grants to developers from a $150 million World Bank loan, the association has become necessary in order to give developers a collective voice at the table. Power for All is a partner of AMDA Nigeria in areas including research, advocacy and awareness to stimulate sector growth.

Power for All speak on panel at workshop on financing for DRE: the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the International Trade Centre (ITC) organized a Climate Finance training for commercial banks, renewable energy financiers and investors, development organizations, DRE companies, climate experts, government institutions such as the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Rural Electrification Agency and other finance. The training focused on Nigeria’s green economy, the need to unlock more investments and commercial funding for green projects, and the need for financiers to consider the environmental impacts of projects they plan to fund. Power for All’s Lead on Market Access Chibuikem Agbaegbu was a speaker on a panel which extensively discussed Nigeria’s DRE market landscape, its investment needs, the opportunity for commercial finance institutions, and various mechanisms for financing the market.

Power for All concludes first phase of SOGE project in Nigeria: the first phase of the SOGE project, which was funded by the USAID and Power Africa and co-implemented in Nigeria by FHI360 and Power for All, has been concluded. The project which aimed at accelerating the growth of the DRE sector in Nigeria and increasing electricity connections through DRE solutions was a one-year project that started in late 2017. As part of the project, Power for All conducted training workshops tagged DRE101/X-Learning Workshops to raise awareness of state and regional policymakers on how DRE solutions can increase the rates of electrification in their regions. Approximately 400 state-level policymakers across 18 state governments participated in these workshops with numerous outcomes, which include plans for states to set up regional taskforces to drive DRE in their domains, research on how some states can share power, states pledging to adopt DRE policies and plans, collaborating with neighboring states on setting up an industrial park for the assembly of DRE components and starting discussions with developers on DRE investments in their domains. Power for All also established a multi-stakeholder taskforce to tackle challenges preventing the growth of the DRE sector in Nigeria. The DRE Taskforce was made up of the private sector, donor agencies, government organizations, civil society and trade associations. It tackled issues plaguing the sector such as the recent imposition of a 10% import duty on solar panels and components, dearth of accurate market intelligence for the sector, poor consumer awareness, lack of standardization of products and components and the need for simplified end-user payments. The SOGE project project was also used to test Power for All’s Platform for Energy Access Knowledge (PEAK), an online, interactive database for curating, organizing, synthesizing and transforming large, growing bodies of data into “digestible,” sharable and useable knowledge targeting key influencers in the decentralized renewable energy sector. This is to enable investors, policymakers and donors make informed decisions on DRE projects. The platform was tested by member of the platform and even non-members such as academic researchers and journalists, and received positive feedback.

 

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