Ghana will host the West Africa Energy Cooperation Summit next month, bringing together regional government leaders, investors, and industry partners at a moment when the country is positioning itself as a clean energy hub despite continuing to rely heavily on natural gas for baseload power.
The summit, scheduled for December 2 and 3 in Accra, represents both opportunity and contradiction as West African nations navigate the complex politics of energy transition while grappling with persistent electricity access challenges.
The Ministry of Energy and Green Transition has been confirmed as patron of the summit, which will focus on mobilising finance and deepening collaboration across the Economic Community of West African States’ regional integration agenda. Ghana’s ambition to serve as a regional energy distribution hub features prominently in the summit’s objectives, though achieving that goal requires substantial investment in transmission infrastructure that doesn’t yet exist at the scale needed for meaningful cross border power trade.
African Trade & Investment Development Insurance (ATIDI) joins as lead sponsor, alongside Endeavour Energy and Denham Capital, underscoring financial sector interest in West African energy despite the considerable risks that have historically deterred large scale investment in the region. ATIDI provides credit and political risk insurance across key economic sectors of the continent, with gross exposure of approximately $8.9 billion as of December 2024. Through its Regional Liquidity Support Facility, a blended finance guarantee instrument, ATIDI enables Independent Power Producers to mitigate payment risks, one of the chronic problems plaguing African power sectors.
Aliyu Alhassan Yahaya, RLSF Underwriter at ATIDI, pointed to the 42 megawatt Sokodé solar photovoltaic plant in Togo as evidence of the organisation’s role in fostering clean energy and increased investor confidence in the region. That project represents the kind of mid scale renewable development West Africa needs hundreds more of to meet electricity access goals, but financing remains stubbornly difficult to secure at commercially viable terms.
The summit agenda includes discussions on financing and de-risking clean energy projects, advancing regional power trade and transmission infrastructure, and accelerating private sector participation in off grid and distributed energy markets. Delegates will explore how innovation and digital technologies can improve energy efficiency, grid reliability, and access across both urban and rural communities. These are familiar themes at African energy conferences, raised repeatedly at similar gatherings across the continent with varying degrees of follow through once delegates return home.
Ghana’s Energy Transition Framework charts a path to net zero emissions by 2070, focusing on cleaner generation, efficiency, and expanding renewables, especially solar. The framework targets incorporating 21,000 megawatts of renewable power into the national energy mix by that date, an ambitious goal that requires an estimated $562 billion in financing according to government calculations. Where that money comes from remains an open question, with the Ministry of Energy acknowledging the need for support from both private sector and development partners alongside domestic resources.
Natural gas remains pivotal for regional baseload power, a reality that complicates narratives about rapid transition to renewables. Ghana currently relies on gas for the majority of its electricity generation, and that’s not changing anytime soon regardless of what transition frameworks envision for 2070. The country is strengthening cross border power trade, attracting climate finance, and modernising its grid, but officials are careful to frame gas as a necessary bridge fuel rather than a fossil fuel to be abandoned immediately.
Among key public and private sector speakers joining the summit agenda are representatives from Volta River Authority, the Chief of Government of Guinea from the Prime Minister’s Office, National Agency for Renewable Energies from Senegal, Rural Electrification Agency from Nigeria, along with private sector players including Gridworks Partners, Cenpower Generation, Wärtsilä Marine & Power Services Nigeria, SEforALL, Bboxx, and Stanbic Bank Ghana. Notably, Liberian Vice President Jeremiah Kpan Koung will participate, reflecting growing recognition that energy challenges require coordinated regional responses rather than isolated national approaches.
Minister of Energy and Green Transition John Abdulai Jinapor emphasised Ghana’s commitment to regional energy cooperation, sustainable development, and what he described as a just energy transition. That phrase, just energy transition, carries significant weight in African energy discourse, representing concerns that wealthy nations who built their economies on fossil fuels shouldn’t impose unrealistic timelines on developing countries still struggling to provide basic electricity access to millions of citizens.
The summit coincides with YES! On The Road Ghana, scheduled for December 3 and 4, an initiative focused on youth empowerment and skills development under the Energy Transition Framework. The youth focused component aims to inspire and equip the next generation of African energy leaders by connecting young talents with experienced mentors, innovators, and investors. Whether that translates into actual career opportunities in Ghana’s energy sector depends on whether the broader transition gains traction beyond policy documents and conference presentations.
Context matters here. Nearly 730 million people worldwide still lacked access to electricity in 2024, according to data from the International Energy Agency, underscoring a slowdown in global electrification efforts since the pandemic. West Africa accounts for a disproportionate share of that deficit, with countries like Nigeria, Niger, and Burkina Faso facing persistent electricity access challenges that hinder economic development and quality of life improvements.
Ghana fares better than many neighbors with electricity access rates above 80 percent, but the country has experienced recurring load shedding episodes that frustrate businesses and households. Having access to electricity matters little if the power goes off unpredictably for hours at a time, a reality that drives those who can afford it to invest in diesel generators, undermining both emission reduction goals and the economic case for grid connected power.
The summit takes place under the theme Building Regional Resilience, language that reflects growing awareness that climate change impacts are already being felt across West Africa through changing rainfall patterns, rising temperatures, and extreme weather events. Energy systems need to be designed not just for projected demand growth but also for climate resilience, which adds complexity and cost to infrastructure planning.
ECOWAS has set ambitious renewable energy targets for the region, but progress toward those goals has been uneven. Some countries are moving faster than others, creating coordination challenges for regional power pooling arrangements that depend on compatible technical standards, harmonised regulations, and political will to prioritise regional cooperation over narrow national interests. Ghana’s positioning as a potential regional hub depends partly on whether neighbouring countries see cooperation as mutually beneficial or view it with suspicion about Ghanaian dominance.
The involvement of major financial institutions like Stanbic Bank and development finance organisations signals that capital is available for bankable projects in West African energy. However, bankable remains the operative word. Many proposed renewable energy projects in the region struggle to achieve financial close because of concerns about offtaker creditworthiness, regulatory uncertainty, currency risk, and political stability. ATIDI’s risk insurance products are designed to address some of these concerns, but they don’t eliminate the underlying challenges that make West African power projects riskier than comparable investments in more stable markets.
Tema Oil Refinery and Ghana National Petroleum Corporation participation in the summit highlights the continued importance of oil and gas in Ghana’s energy economy. The country has offshore oil production and domestic gas resources that generate substantial revenue and employment. Balancing energy transition commitments with economic dependence on fossil fuel revenues creates policy tensions that won’t be easily resolved, particularly when international pressure for rapid decarbonisation conflicts with domestic development priorities.
The summit agenda’s emphasis on digitalisation reflects broader trends in global energy systems, where smart grid technologies, advanced metering, and data analytics promise to improve efficiency and reliability. However, deploying these technologies in West African contexts requires addressing basic infrastructure gaps, building technical capacity, and ensuring affordability for utilities already struggling with financial sustainability. Digital solutions aren’t magic bullets if underlying system weaknesses remain unaddressed.
Whether this summit generates concrete outcomes beyond networking opportunities and policy declarations remains to be seen. African energy conferences tend to feature ambitious announcements that don’t always translate into implemented projects and sustained funding. The test will be whether commitments made in Accra in December lead to operational megawatts added to regional grids, improved electricity access in underserved areas, and meaningful progress toward stated transition goals over the coming years.
Ghana’s hosting of the summit positions the country as a regional energy thought leader, which carries both prestige and responsibility. If Ghana can demonstrate successful models for attracting renewable energy investment, integrating variable renewable sources into its grid, and maintaining reliable electricity supply during energy transition, that could provide valuable lessons for neighbouring countries facing similar challenges. If the gap between policy ambition and implementation reality persists, the summit will be remembered as another talking shop rather than a genuine inflection point for West African energy cooperation.
Source: newsghana.com.gh
