Africa will need more than $700 billion in financing over the next decade to develop the renewable energy and mines needed for the green energy transition, according to the Standard Bank Group.
For his part, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Bank’s corporate and investment banking unit, Kenny Vihla, said financial institutions on the continent would not be able to provide even half of that, and would need to bring in most of the money from investors elsewhere.
“Many of the minerals required to build solar panels, lithium batteries, wind turbines, etc. are in sub-Saharan Africa. Our team has also determined the amount of investment required in that area to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars,” Vihla added, according to Bloomberg. Al-Arabiya.net reviewed it.
It comes as African governments are under pressure to expand energy supplies to the 600 million people – about half of the continent’s population – who currently do not have access to electricity.
Meanwhile, deposits of copper and cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia, reserves of lithium in Zimbabwe, and platinum and manganese in South Africa are seen as key to providing the materials for everything from solar panels to electric car batteries.
“The financial resources that the banking sector has in sub-Saharan Africa will not be enough for us to be able to fully support these initiatives,” said Vihla. “The bulk of this money should come from international investors who want to grow in or play a role in the renewable energy sector or in the mining of those critical minerals.”
Vihla, whose bank is the largest in Africa by assets, added that in South Africa alone Standard Bank is likely to “reach the upper limit of lending between 250 billion rand ($13 billion) and 300 billion rand for renewable energy initiatives by 2026.”
