Africa has everything it takes to become a “renewable superpower”, UN head Antonio Guterres said Thursday, as he called for greater investment in green energy across the resource-rich continent.

Guterres spoke at a three-day development conference in Japan attended by African leaders, where Tokyo is offering itself as an alternative to China as African nations reel from a debt crisis exacerbated by Western aid cuts, conflict and climate change.

“We must mobilise finance and technology, so that Africa’s natural wealth benefits African people, we must build a thriving renewables and manufacturing base across the continent,” Guterres said at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD).

“Green power in Africa lowers energy costs, diversifies supply chains and accelerates decarbonisation for everyone.”

China has invested heavily in Africa over the past decade, with its companies there signing deals worth hundreds of billions of dollars to finance shipping ports, railways, roads and other projects under Beijing’s Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative.

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But new lending is drying up, and developing countries are grappling with a “tidal wave” of debt to both China and international private creditors, the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank, said in May.

African countries have also seen Western aid slashed, in particular due to President Donald Trump’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Guterres warned in his speech in the Japanese port city of Yokohama that “debt must not drown development” and that Africa needed increased concessional finance and greater lending capacity from multilateral development banks.

He also urged greater investment in climate solutions.

“Africa has everything it takes to become a renewable superpower, from solar and wind to the critical minerals that power new technology,” he said.

Attendees at TICAD included Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Kenyan President William Ruto.

Ruto said on social media platform X that Kenya was in talks with Japanese automaker Toyota for the provision of 5,000 “e-mobility vehicles” as part of the country’s “commitment to clean energy”.

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In his opening address at the forum on Wednesday, Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced a plan to train 30,000 people in artificial intelligence in Africa over three years and to study the idea of a Japan-Africa Economic Partnership.

Before the meeting kicked off, Ishiba also announced a vision for a distribution network that links African and Indian Ocean nations.

Both Tinubu and Ramaphosa, speaking on X, said they wanted a shift from aid to investment partnerships.

Source: AFP