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Friday, June 2, 2017

ECOWAS gets $1bn Israeli solar energy boost

An Israeli renewable energy company, Energiya Global and the USAID Power Africa Initiative have collaborated to boost the electricity power supply in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) with some $1billion solar commitment, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This is coming as a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed Friday between the State of Israel and ECOWAS, Israel’s leading solar developer to invest $1 billion over the next four years to advance green energy power projects across the 15 member states of the West African economic community.

“In honor of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s two terms in office, and Liberia’s friendship with the State of Israel, Energiya Global and our international partners will finance and build a commercial-scale solar field at the Roberts International Airport, which will supply 25 per cent of the country’s generation capacity,” says Yosef I. Abramowitz, CEO.  “We are prepared to finance and build the first National Demonstration Solar Projects in all ECOWAS-affiliated countries in order to promote political stability and social and economic development, as well as to advance knowledge transfer.”

Energiya Global and its associated companies developed the first commercial scale solar field in sub-Sahara Africa in Rwanda, which is supplying 6 per cent of the country’s power, and the group broke ground on a similar power plant in Burundi, which will supply 15 per cent of the country’s power by the end of the year.  The solar group has fields at various stages of development in ten African countries and expects to announce its full program at the Israel-Africa Summit in Togo at the end of October.


In an historic first, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is scheduled today to address the 15 West African heads of state of ECOWAS, as well as the head of the African Union. “Israel is coming back to Africa,” the Prime Minister will announce, and will outline the technological innovations in agriculture, water, green energy and more that can support economic development in West Africa. 

Isaac Oyimah/GEE 
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