From Uche Usim, Abuja
To deepen Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) penetration in West Africa, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) through its subsidiary, Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), on Thursday said it has invested in Ecow-Gas B.V. (Ecowgas), a special purpose vehicle designed to achieve that objective.
The investment follows a realization that limited power supply from the grid has plunged Africa’s industrial sector into severe energy shortages, leading to high production costs, inefficient operations and reduced global competitiveness, amongst scathing development.
The regional bank thus reckons that off-grid solutions were required to address the aforementioned challenges and put Africa firmly on the path to energy sustainability.
Commenting on the development, the President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, Prof Benedict Oramah said that
FEDA’s investment in Ecow-Gas, in partnership with a leading international oil company, will support the creation of the infrastructure to provide access to cheaper and cleaner fuels for underserved industrial customers across the region using LNG.
This, he explained, will also promote efforts to minimize carbon monoxide emission by replacing environment-polluting fuels currently in use.
“FEDA’s investment in Ecow-Gas is a testament to its mission of providing development equity capital to sectors critical to the growth and development of intra-African trade, export development and industrialisation. Through this investment, FEDA is seeking to unlock access to affordable and cleaner energy for industrialization purposes and to significantly impact intra-regional trade, especially in the West Africa region”, Oramah stated.
Emmanuel Assiak, Acting Chief Executive Officer, FEDA , added:” We are delighted to partner with experienced operators and investors on this mission-critical opportunity to unlock the provision of cheaper and cleaner fuel in West Africa. The combined complementary skills and capabilities within the Ecow-Gas platform stakeholders will help enable the Company to execute its growth plans. We believe that EcowGas will help to significantly remove the energy supply and cost bottlenecks that negatively impact the competitiveness of the region as a manufacturing destination.”
Kwaku Boakye-Adjei, CEO of H Investments and Ecow-Gas, commented: “We are excited to commence this project as we see LNG as not only a fuel for large scale Independent Power Producers in the region but for mid to small scale industries as well to transition from Heavy Fuel Oil, Diesel and other distillates and ultimately, to renewables. LNG powered microgeneration can help to alleviate issues such as intermittency which act as a barrier to wide scale adoption of renewables in West Africa.”