Africa investor (Ai) today confirmed Dr. Hubert Danso, its CEO and Chairman, and the Chairman of the African Union’s Continental Business Network (CBN), the African Green Infrastructure Investment Bank (AfGIIB), and Co-Chair of the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Africa Council, shared investor insights on the World Economic Forum’s First Movers Coalition (FMC) studio panel session on Surfacing the Supply of Zero-Emission Fuels and Clean Technologies in South Africa.
The panel accompanied the launch of the FMC’s white paper on “Decarbonizing South Africa’s shipping and trucking sectors following the workshop that FMC held in South Africa on surfacing the supply of zero-emission fuels.
In this wide-ranging panel discussion, Dr. Danso addressed the strategic investments and partnerships required to position South Africa as a leader in zero-emission fuels and clean technologies for the shipping and trucking sectors, within a global and continental sustainable energy transition context. Dr. Danso shared insights on how the Africa investor Group is leveraging international and regional financing opportunities to support the development of green hydrogen projects in South Africa and the continent, and the growing importance of establishing Africa Green Industrial Infrastructure as an investable asset class through Institutional Investor-Public Partnerships (IIPPs) and the African Green Infrastructure Investment Bank (AfGIIB).
Speaking on the panel, Dr. Danso highlighted, “The energy transition is a megatrend. It needs real multibillion-dollar investment platforms and mega funds to deliver South Africa’s $20 billion portfolio of green hydrogen projects and even larger opportunities that sit around renewables. There is a need to continue creating an emphasis around how we communicate the opportunity in the best and most structured fashion to the global institutional investment community. That is going to be the only pool of capital big enough to drive these ambitious projects.”
Dr. Danso introduced the complex role institutional investors are playing as universal owners, engaging bankable investee companies with proven transition technologies and sustainable energy solutions, to provide essential private sector leadership in Africa’s just energy transformation through Green Industrial Cities initiatives, aimed at creating green jobs and establishing Africa as a world-leading, investable manufacturing hub for green technologies.
View the panel highlights
Visit First Movers Coalition web page: South Africa’s Shipping and Trucking Sectors virtual panel discussion – First Movers Coalition (weforum.org)