Invest in project preparation to unlock energy transformation, Africa told

By BUUMBA CHIMBULU in Luanda

AFRICAN governments and development partners should prioritise investment in early-stage project preparation, being the “missing link” in the continent’s energy transformation, says Chief Executive Officer of the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) Nardos Bekele-Thomas.
Ms Bekele-Thomas said that while Africa had a clear vision through Agenda 2063, the Continental Power Systems Master Plan (CMP), and the African Single Electricity Market (AfSEM), progress continued to stall because too few projects were developed to a bankable stage.

She was speaking at the Luanda Financing Summit for Africa’s Infrastructure Development in Angola.
“The what and the why are crystal clear. Today, I want to be candid about the how – and, more critically, the gaps that are preventing us from moving at the speed our continent demands,” she said.
Ms Bekele-Thomas identified project preparation as the most critical of the three major disconnects hindering Africa’s infrastructure rollout.
“The CMP provides a sequenced pipeline of interconnectors and generation hubs. But a pipeline is not a portfolio of investable deals,” she said. “Our immediate, collective failure is in the ‘first mile’ of project development.”
She noted that many African countries continue to under-invest in early-stage activities such as feasibility studies, environmental impact assessments, and transaction advisory services, which are vital to transform concepts into bankable propositions.
“We consistently under-invest in early-stage project preparation. The result is that we present potential investors with concepts, not bankable propositions,” Ms Bekele-Thomas explained. “We must treat project preparation not as an administrative cost, but as the essential catalytic investment that it is.”
She emphasised that the lack of investment at this stage increases perceived risk and deters private capital, which was often reluctant to fund the earliest and riskiest phases of infrastructure projects.
To close this gap, AUDA-NEPAD was taking concrete action.
Ms Bekele-Thomas revealed that the agency was forging an alliance of philanthropic partners to create a flexible facility dedicated exclusively to early-stage project studies.
“We are not just advocating; we are building the machinery,” she said. “This facility will enable African projects to reach the level of readiness required to attract serious investment.”
Additionally, AUDA-NEPAD was adopting a corridor-based portfolio approach, bundling interrelated projects within the same regional corridor to reduce risk and attract larger-scale financing.
“Instead of pitching single, high-risk projects, we are bundling projects within a corridor – like the priority interconnectors in the CMP – to de-risk the entire value chain and make individual projects within it more attractive,” she said.
Ms Bekele-Thomas stressed that such innovations were vital to ensuring that Africa can translate its vast energy potential into real, functioning infrastructure.
“We have the vision. What we need now is disciplined execution. Project preparation is where implementation begins,” she said. “If we fail to invest in the first mile, we will never reach the finish line.”
She called for a shared commitment among governments, financiers and development partners to finance the “unglamorous but critical” early-stage work that unlocks long-term development.