The Government of South Korea and the African Development Bank on Tuesday signed a Letter of Intent to launch the Korea-Africa Energy Investment Facility.
Under the deal, South Korea declared its readiness to provide African countries $600m in both concessional and non-concessional loans over a period of five years. Implementation of projects under the deal could take place as early as the end of 2018, according to Punch.
The signing of the letter took place during the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation meeting at the African Development Bank’s Annual Meetings in Busan.
It built on the 2016 KOAFEC Ministerial Conference, which recognised enhancing access to energy as a strategic factor for the modernisation and transformation of African economies.
The facility is expected to contribute towards Africa’s efforts to achieve universal access to energy and to transform its energy systems.
According to the AfDB, the facility will support a full range of activities like preparation, construction and operations, through a mix of financing and technical assistance.
Similarly, South Korea also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Power Africa during the same event; thus underlining its intention to support the African power sector, especially transmission-line infrastructure.
The AfDB is a founding partner of the United States-led Power Africa initiative and envisages working closely with South Korea and Power Africa.
The President of the AfDB, Akinwumi Adesina, thanked the Government of South Korea for its longstanding support to the bank and to the African continent, and welcomed country’s support for the New Deal on Energy for Africa.
