Mr Victor Yaw Asante, who was representing Dr Adesola Adeduntan, Managing Director of the First Bank of Nigeria, the parent bank of FBNBank Gha­na, was speaking as a panellist during a discussion on the topic “Financing Sustainable Energy Transitions in Africa – Pitfalls, Potentials and Paradoxes” at the Climate Finance for Sustainabil­ity Energy Transition in Africa Conference held at the University of Ghana.

As per the topic, Africa’s widening energy access gap creates a unique opportunity for the region to leapfrog fossil fuel technologies and pursue a climate-friendly, needs-oriented  power strategy aligned with the Paris Agreement and low-carbon growth.

Through the discussion, pan­ellists helped identify and discuss financing gaps and opportunities to guide stakeholders to access, al­locate and mobilise climate finance effectively.

Mr Asante established that Africa has several energy resources and that most of the currently used sources are hydro-carbon based while the water-based ones are not adequately tapped.

He also touched on solar and wind as additional options, explain­ing that very little attention has been paid to these two compared to water. “Solar can deliver 60 per cent of our own power energy,” he said.

To ensure that Africa enjoys the best use of its multiple energy resources, Mr Asante stressed the need for investment in human capital development with a strong element of capacity building, as well as finance and technological advancement.

He was of the view that this would bring about the much-need­ed transition to the use of sustain­able energy, and that organisations should be able to strengthen human capital across the African continent as well as strengthen institutions across the board.

According to the Managing Director of FBNBank Ghana, “Capacity building in technology will be ideal if we want to transi­tion to the sustainable energy that we want. Capacity requires two things; capital and skills. Organi­sations should, therefore, be able to strengthen human capital across the African continent as well as

 strengthen institutions across board.

“In terms of financing, the amount of investment required is not something that can easily be acquired from the continent at the moment. In Nigeria, they are committed to achieving net-zero gas by 2060 at the cost of about two trillion dollars, and Ghana plans to also achieve same by 2070. There must be a need for some interventions from some multina­tional banks, development banks and other financial organisations to assist in financing to achieve our goal,” he said.

Other members of the panel for the topic include Ian Mashin­gaidze, Programme Director for Africa Capacity Building Founda­tion (ACBF), Seun Akindele, Head of Corporate Communications of Access Bank, Chidozie Ezike, Head, Group ESG and Risk Mea­surement at United Bank for Afri­ca. The moderator was Professor Kenneth Amaeshi of the School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute.