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Dedicates it to all stakeholders working hard to Power Africa out of Poverty<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Mr. Tony Elumelu, yesterday, while receiving the \u2018Person of the Year\u2019 award at the Africa Investor CEO Institutional Investment Summit hosted alongside the UN General Assembly in New York, extolled stakeholders in the public and private sectors committed to improving access to power in Africa. As the economies of African regional powerhouses like Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Uganda, Nigeria and Angola struggle due to excessive exposure to commodities\u2019 prices caused by limited diversification, Elumelu proffered a sustainable solution to reduce Africa\u2019s historical external vulnerability. Dedicates it to all stakeholders working hard to Power Africa out of Poverty Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Mr. Tony Elumelu, yesterday, while receiving the \u2018Person of the Year\u2019 award…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nHe first acknowledged the staff and management of Transcorp Power, the biggest producer of thermal energy in Nigeria, providing about 18% of national output: \u201cIn accepting this award, I want to dedicate it to Transcorp Power staff who remain committed to realizing our dream of improving access to electricity in Nigeria and making our vision of a well-lit, fully powered Nigeria come true.\u201d Transcorp Power has supported U.S. President Obama\u2019s Power Africa initiative with a $2.5billion commitment. He thanked the broader coalition of investors in the African power sector, as he urged other institutional investors to consider long-term opportunities on the continent. \u201cI also dedicate this to all stakeholders working hard to improve access to power in Africa. I call on others to please join us in this journey to powering Africa out of poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAfrica has been faced with this same challenge, in my view, for far too long. I choose to look at the recent episodes of economic contraction across the continent as opportunities to diversify our economies and invest in building critical infrastructure, especially in power, to reduce our susceptibility to commodity shocks and break out of the perpetual boom-bust cycles.\u201d
\nHe emphasized that to ensure a different type of growth trajectory for Africa \u2013 one that does not rely exclusively on the export of primary commodities \u2013\u00a0\u00a0there must be reliable, accessible, affordable power to support industrialization. \u201cIndustrialization must occur on a massive scale for our countries to be powered out of chronic dependency on commodities. We must power Africa\u2019s next phase of development, by targeting and prioritizing growth of our manufacturing, industries and services. And power is the fulcrum that will make this happen,\u201d he said.
\nElumelu revealed that while there is an abundance of private capital available to be deployed to develop the African power sector, government must play its part in attracting these investments. He explained, \u201cWhile there is huge private capital \u2013 local and global \u2013 seeking investment destinations, as we know, global private capital goes to where it is most welcome. Therefore, the challenge before African governments should be how to ensure they create the environment that will attract and retain these investments in our continent.\u201d To the foreign investors gathered at the forum, he advised, \u201cThough there are challenges in investing in Africa, these challenges can be overcome by investing in Africa through partnerships with qualified local partners who possess the right knowledge, requisite capital and technical know how.\u201d
\nSpeaking further, Elumelu urged private and public sector stakeholders to work together in what he describes as \u201cShared Purpose\u201d. \u201cIt is critical for the public and private sectors to work together in \u201cSHARED PURPOSE\u201d, which is a key tenet of Africapitalism \u2013 the economic philosophy I espouse which calls for the private sector to play a key role in Africa\u2019s social and economic development by investing in strategic sectors for both economic profit and social prosperity.\u201d
\nElumelu, who is also co-chair of the African Energy Leaders Group (AELG), a community of African energy leaders including Presidents and leading corporates, concluded his remarks by examining the role of power in creating opportunities for Africa\u2019s jobless youth. \u201cIn the 21st century, the level of poverty we have in Africa and the dire youth unemployment, to a large extent, can be solved by improving access to power, and by extension other infrastructure deficiencies and deficits. Even though we are making progress, there is still a lot to be done. We need faster progress.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"