The African Development Bank, through its Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa, has launched a call for proposals to provide up to $20 million in pre-investment funding for green hydrogen and derivatives projects across the continent, targeting three to five shortlisted projects in a bid to unlock a sector where the gap between ambition and delivery remains vast.
Of 78 announced green hydrogen projects across Africa — valued at approximately $194 billion in aggregate — the majority remain stuck in early-stage development due to a lack of access to capital and infrastructure. The AfDB programme aims directly at this bottleneck by providing reimbursable grants to support feasibility studies, front-end engineering design and transaction advisory services, de-risking projects and pushing them toward financial close.
The programme is backed by a €30 million financing package from the German government, designed to crowd in private capital at scale.
“Green hydrogen represents a real opportunity for Africa, both to decarbonise hard-to-abate industries and to build new value chains, while contributing to socio-economic development.” — Daniel Schroth, Director of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, African Development Bank
Africa’s green hydrogen potential is projected to reach between 30 million and 60 million metric tons annually by 2050, positioning the continent as a global production hub. Export capacity is expected to hit 20 million tons per year by the same date. Morocco alone is projected to capture up to 4 percent of global demand by 2030, while Namibia could create 600,000 jobs from the sector by 2040 and South Africa an estimated 650,000 jobs by 2050. Across the continent, the sector could contribute $60 billion to $120 billion to Africa’s GDP.
Source: Energy Capital & Power