John Smelcer

21st May, 2025

Jonathan Hoffman

Latest news

TDB Group Signs Landmark Agreements With Leading Dre And Clean Cooking Companies To Deliver Clean Energy Access For 3 Million People Within A Year, As Part Of An Initial String Of Deals

The agreements signed on the sidelines of AEF are part of TDB Group’s Regional Energy Access Financing Platform, a first-of-its-kind platform supported by the World Bank’s ASCENT Program under Mission 300 Cape Town, 19 June 2025 – The Trade and Development Bank Group (TDB Group), and its concessional and grant window, the Trade and Development […]

Challenges, and Opportunities in SA’s Power Market Reform

By Kesh Mudaly and Adwoa Banful – BCG South Africa Power Sector Experts Q1: What does power market reform entail for South Africa, and what are the main goals? (KESH) Market reform in South Africa involves a fundamental restructuring of the power sector to improve efficiency, reliability, and competition. At its core, reform includes transitioning […]

Pioneering a New Model for Financing Renewable Energy in Africa

Lusaka, 18 June 2025 – In a major step forward for renewable energy in Africa, Serengeti Energy and Kwama Energy, together with four impact lenders, have partnered to develop the Ilute Solar Project (Ilute), located near Sesheke in Western Zambia. This 32MWp project is the first project financed power venture to supply electricity via the […]

How development finance can increase energy access in Africa – and how governments can accelerate this

BII CEO, Leslie Maasdorp, outlines some of the steps that could help bring the benefits of electricity to 300 million more Africans by the end of the decade. Energy is the foundation of development – in Africa, and globally. Sustainable prosperity involves many things – good healthcare, digital technologies, efficient transportation, decent jobs and more […]

Robust Transmission Infrastructure Is the Linchpin for Addressing Africa’s Energy Crisis

By Sarvesh Suri, IFC Regional Industry Director for Infrastructure and Natural Resources, Africa The progress in power generation across Africa has been encouraging: 26 GW of renewables-based generation capacity added in the last 10 years, according to the Renewable Energy Market Analysis report. But millions of people remain in the dark as population growth and […]

Africa data centres power up

Data centre operators are building capacity to serve a fast-growing digital economy Around the world, data centres are a hot new asset class. Investment in these specialised warehouses, which store, process and deliver every byte of our digital lives, is forecast to more than double in the next seven years[1]. This is thanks to an […]

Chisamba Solar Project increases Stanbic’s Energy Sector Financing to USD223.7m in 6 months

…as GreenCo gets ready to start onward supply of power to First Quantum Minerals 27 May 2025, Lusaka: Stanbic Bank says its financing of three key energy projects in the last six months is amounting to a USD223.7 million with a total contribution of 660MW to the grid, demonstrating the Bank’s clear commitment to the […]

Sustainable Energy

Bringing light to places that need it

Gqi Raoleka, CEO of Pele Green Energy, explains how he and his colleagues are building an independent power producer that channels capital, talent and innovation into tangible opportunities What makes Pele Green Energy different? Gqi Raoleka: We were among the first independent power producers (IPPs) in South Africa in 2009 and we’ve been developing and […]