Project on business opportunities for women to kick off with 4 country stakeholder meetings

The ECREEE project on Feasibility Study on Business Opportunities for Women in a Changing Energy Value Chain in West Africa is organizing four-country stakeholder meetings to kick-off the feasibility study. Financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the project seeks to develop a high quality, gender responsive, regional energy market development strategy that taps into the innate entrepreneurial capacity of ECOWAS women. The ultimate objective of which is to harness this capacity towards increasing the establishment of energy businesses and deployment of energy technologies to meet the energy needs of the region’s largely unserved population.

In 2018, the project completed a pre-feasibility study and identified four country-focused projects for further market development. These include: Development of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Distribution (LPG) businesses in Nigeria; Development of Solar based electricity generation systems and solar lighting product distribution businesses in Ghana; Development of Clean Energy Powered Mini and Micro Grid electricity generation and distribution businesses in Senegal: Identification and development of Smart Applications for Energy Consumers in Cote d’Ivoire.

A consortium led by RINA Consulting S.p.A was awarded the contract to conduct the four feasibility studies. In line with implementing their contract, RINA and its partners Fondazione Acra and Comete International will be adopting a strategy aimed to achieve the following objectives:

• “To ensure that the gender-specific impacts, vulnerabilities and barriers that women and girls face are considered and addressed, so as to minimise any harm that they may generate;
• To promote equal ability to access and utilise the assets, services, benefits and opportunities generated by the investments, regardless of sex, so as to maximise their positive impacts; and,
• To identify investment opportunities and markets that increase women’s participation, on equal terms, in the economy and labour market”.

In addition to the technical and legal feasibility studies, the consultant will develop information memorandums for presentation to debt and equity investors for the four country-focused projects.

The envisaged kick-off meetings will serve to officially launch the country project activites. The specific objectives include to: make local stakeholders aware of the country projects and of their objectives; open a direct communication channel between the stakeholders and the consultant; and create a forum to discuss in detail the various roles of the stakeholders in the project development.

Beyond a presentation on the project, the local kick-off meetings will be used in collecting preliminary data from stakeholders as well as to finalize the aspects to be covered by the feasibility studies.

The meetings will take place in Abidjan, Accra, Dakar and Lagos during the last week of March or the first week of April. Interested participants should send emails to the RINA Project Director, Mrs Cristina Bianchi: cristina.bianchi{at}rina.org , copying the ECREEE Project Manager, Ms Monica Maduekwe, mmaduekwe{at}ecreee.org .

About the Consultant:

RINA Group provides a wide range of services across the Energy, Marine, Certification, Transport & Infrastructure, and Industry sectors through a global network of 170 offices in 65 countries worldwide. RINA Consulting is the engineering arm of the Group, offering technical capabilities to cover aspects related to agribusiness, technical framework, energy efficiency, climate change, renewable energy, power, environment, health and social safety nets. Their clients include International Finance Institutions (IFIs), Export Credit Agencies (ECAs), Commercial Banks and public and private project sponsors.

ACRA Foundation is an Italian NGO established in 1968 and recognized by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Union. ACRA designs, implements and promotes high social impact, sustainable solutions to tackle poverty through market-based solutions in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe. ACRA has 50 years’ experience in in the fields of education, energy & environment, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and food, with a cross-cutting focus on inclusive economy, both in developing countries and in Italy.

COMETE has more than 30 years of contributing to development in Africa. COMETE is an African engineering and consulting firm. It is a recognized leader in engineering services in Africa. Based in Tunis, COMETE has a network of subsidiaries and branches covering North Africa, West Africa and Central Africa.