The Trump administration will shutter Power Africa, a flagship development program to support renewable energy projects on the continent that also led to billions of dollars in deals for US companies.
Nearly half the population of sub-Saharan Africa still lacks access to electricity, one of the region’s biggest barriers to economic development.
Power Africa wasn’t designed to completely solve that problem, but instead to use a relatively tiny volume of US funding — just over $1 billion since the project’s inception in 2013 — to de-risk power generation and grid projects, as well as to support economic development adjacent to the Lobito Corridor rail line and other strategically important infrastructure.
Power Africa, an Obama-era program designed by USAID, raised at least $29 billion in its lifetime, according to the Center for Global Development — a 24-fold leveraging ratio. Most of the program’s staff have now been fired, Bloomberg reported.
