- Top on the agenda is strengthening private investment and cooperation in the field of sustainable energy supply.
- CwA countries are supported by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Image: COURTESY
President William Ruto joined other African leaders Monday in Germany for a high-level conference dubbed Compact with Africa (CwA).
The meeting to be held at JW Marriott hotel in Berlin also brings together German and African representatives from the business community and the world of politics.
Top on the agenda is strengthening private investment and cooperation in the field of sustainable energy supply.
They will also discuss how to intensify their mutual economic relations as well as concrete joint projects.
The Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz will deliver the opening speech.
Germany launched the G20 Compact with Africa (CwA) during its G20 Presidency in 2017.
G20 works closely in the CwA with reform-oriented African partners on shared goal-improving economic conditions in the CwA countries so that more foreign (private) investment flows into these countries.
CwA countries are supported in this by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
Initially, there were a total of 12 Compact members which are Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia.
Democratic Republic of the Congo recently joined as the 13th member with other reform-oriented states showing their interest in joining it.
Angola, Kenya and Zambia will therefore be sitting at the table at the CwA Conference in Berlin.
During the conference, Ruto will use the opportunity to showcase Kenya as a “leading investment destination in the region, and make a case for strengthening economic ties between the EU and the East African Community”.
He will also advance discussions on Labour Mobility with Germany, and consolidate Germany-Kenya cooperation on Green Energy initiatives.
"This includes the production of green hydrogen and rehabilitation of Olkaria geothermal fields and grid stabilization," a statement from Statehouse spokesman Hussein Mohamed reads.
Apart from discussing core CwA issues, the heads of state will get an opportunity to hold bilateral talks between the states- and for confidential exchanges on the major issues of our time.
Which concrete results can be expected?
Africa is a key partner when it comes to stepping up economic relations and moving towards a climate-neutral future.
This potential can only be realised through extensive private investment.
In the sphere of strengthening private investment, Germany has already shown the way with the diversification strategy it adopted recently paving the way for more direct investment in certain states.
This explicitly also applies to the CwA countries and is intended to diversify supply chains, thus making them more resilient.
The latter also applies to closer cooperation on extracting raw materials sustainably and processing them locally.
The conference is further intended to mark the start of increased long-term cooperation in the sphere of sustainable energy supply and the export of green hydrogen and its derivatives from Africa to Germany and Europe.
Among other things, Germany can build here on the Africa-EU Green Energy Initiative, which encompasses a broad portfolio in the sphere of green hydrogen and which the CwA Conference is intended to boost.
Through a combination of public and private investment, this initiative is to drive forward the expansion of renewable energies in Africa on a massive scale for the local energy transition, as well as Africa’s industrial development and export.