PM hails Green Industrial Revolution ‘sweeping across Africa’

• PM set welcomes transformative new investments in clean energy at Commonwealth Business Forum in Kigali today
• UK government support and private sector partnerships back hydropower across Africa and renewable energy supply in Uganda
• UK also commits a further £36m to help small island states protect their ocean economies

The Prime Minister will welcome major new UK investments and public-private partnerships which are turbocharging the clean energy transition in Africa, as he attends the Commonwealth Business Forum in Kigali today.

Two projects supported British International Investment (BII) – the UK’s development finance institution – will invest massively in hydropower across Africa and upgrade Uganda’s power stations to boost renewable energy capacity.

The UK will also commit an additional £36 million to boost sustainable growth in Small Island Developing States’ critical maritime economy. The funding will support UK scientific expertise and resources for small island governments to sustainably monetise their ocean resources, while protecting the marine environment. 

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:

“The Green Industrial Revolution is sweeping across Africa, backed by British financing and technical expertise. The continent’s abundant natural resources can be harnessed to provide cheap, reliable sources of energy for its people and industries, without contributing to the rising global temperatures that are already devastating communities.

“The UK Government is leading the way, supporting sustainable green infrastructure across the Commonwealth and opening new opportunities for Britain’s leading clean tech companies to grow their business around the world.”

British International Investment will provide up to £162 million [$200m USD] of capital investment in the hydropower sector in Africa, partnered with Norway’s Norfund in a joint venture with energy firm Scatec.

The partnership is expected to create 180,000 jobs and provide enough electricity to meet the needs of more than 3 million people, while slashing greenhouse gas emissions. Initial projects include the proposed 205MW Ruzizi III hydropower plant which will provide energy for Rwanda, DRC and Burundi, and the construction of Malawi’s largest power plant.

Gridworks, a UK Government-funded subsidiary of BII, has also signed a cooperation agreement with the Government of Uganda this week to invest up to $90 million [£73m] to develop their national grid. The project will upgrade four critical electricity substations in Uganda to boost their capacity to absorb renewable energy to supply industrial customers. 

Uganda already gets 80 percent of its energy from renewable sources, but has the potential to generate far more if storage and transmission infrastructure is improved.

ENDS

• British International Investment (BII) Plc is the new name for the UK’s development finance institution, formerly known as CDC Group. BII is a trusted investment partner to businesses in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. It aims to invest between £1.5 and £2 billion every year under its 5-year strategy, which will support the UK Government’s Clean Green Initiative and create productive, sustainable and inclusive economies in its markets.
• Gridworks is owned and funded by the UK government under BII, and works to develop and invest in Africa’s electricity networks. It partners with governments, utilities, and companies in the energy sector to connect Africa’s people and its businesses to reliable, affordable power.
• The Sustainable Blue Economies programme is part of the £500m Blue Planet Fund, and is fully funded by the UK’s International Climate Finance budget.
• Small Island Developing States steward almost a third of the global ocean, and are particularly vulnerable to climate and economic shocks.

PM speech at business forum – checked against delivery

Your Excellencies,

   ladies and gentleman,

  how absolutely wonderful to be here in Kigali for our long delayed family reunion, as the Commonwealth

I’m sorry to say I missed the dancing last night, Jonathan, very good to see you strutting your funky stuff, in the way that you were. Let’s hear it for Jonathan Marland on the dancefloor

By the way the weather is absolutely lovely here in Rwanda today, but I’ve got to tell you, here’s an amazing statistic – it’s actually hotter in London – or so my staff just told me.

This is a very very timely meeting, as Jonathan has just said we’ve all come out of the misery of the covid lockdowns and look at what is going on in the world today - unfortunately we still see economic pressures

And we’re seeing spikes in the cost of energy, spikes in the cost of food, and of fertiliser

I was talking about this with Paul Kagame just now 

   But what if there was a miracle fertiliser, a fertiliser of business, that grew your business, that expanded your profits and cut your costs, by 21%

There is such a fertiliser, and I’ll tell you the ingredients

It’s perfectly harmless, it’s organic, there are no phosphates, no nitrates, it won’t cause algal bloom

   I’ll tell you what the ingredients are, it’s a common language, it’s familiar sense of our legal and administrative systems, it’s a shared sense of mutual trust between us,

and that fertiliser is called the Commonwealth

   I can prove it

that fertiliser knocks 21 percent off the cost of trade between Commonwealth members. That’s 21 percent bigger profits if you do deals between the Commonwealth

   that’s 21 percent efficiencies without the expense of management consultants

   And now is the time, my friends, to turbocharge those advantages,

   because over the next five years,

   the Commonwealth’s total GDP is forecast to rise by nearly 50 per cent to $19.5 trillion.

   And these are the markets, super fertilised markets that will power growth and prosperity and create jobs in our countries,

   and at the same time help to ease those pressures that we all face on the cost of living.

So we are going ahead,

And in the UK we’re striking free trade agreements across the Commonwealth:

   we’ve done Australia,

   we’ve done New Zealand,

   we’re going to do a deal with India by Diwali,

we’ve signed free trade or economic partnership agreements with 33 of our Commonwealth friends - so far –

   and through the Trans-Pacific Partnership,

   we’re aiming for new deals with Malaysia and Brunei.

    By the way it’s fantastic to see the birth of the African Continental Free Trade Area, isn’t that going to be a wonderful thing

   It’s going to be the biggest in the world,

1.3 billion people,

   promising to lift 30 million out of extreme poverty

   and generate $450 billion for African nations,

   which, by the way, is far far more than Africa could ever receive in development aid.

And I massively support that new Africa free trade area,

I remember the UK helped to found the European free trade area many years ago, which then got taken over by something called the European Union, but nevermind that

I don’t necessarily advise by the way that you turn the African free trade area into a single currency but I  leave that wholly to you. And that will be a matter entirely for Africa.

But we want to support this project, and we’re backing the new secretariat in Accra,

  and as African countries remove trade barriers from their borders,

  we’re making it easier to sell to the UK

  because on 6th July

  we’re launching a new preferential trade system for 65 developing countries,

   including Rwanda and 17 other Commonwealth members.

  liberalising our tariffs, getting rid of those pointless tariffs that are totally vexatious, that cost more to collect than the revenues you get from them

abolishing the nuisance tariffs – they exist

  and improving our rules of origin to make it easier for all our countries to benefit.

And what I feel so strongly about the Commonwealth is it’s not just about imports and exports – it’s about the partnerships we build

   it’s about doing more together to ensure that everyone prospers from the new green industrial revolution.

I saw some of you, I’m proud to say, at the Africa Investment Summit in London in 2020, remember that – just before covid struck, a moment of real optimism

I want you to know we’ll do the same again next year, and I hope to see again in London next year

   and it’s great to announce

   that British International Investment putting £160 million into hydropower in Africa,

  creating 180,000 jobs, including here in Rwanda,

  while at the same time cutting carbon emissions, generating electricity for 3 million people.

  Many African countries, I’ve mentioned the sun in London today – it’s exceptional – I hope you’ll understand I’m not bragging about the sun in London, it’s not as consistent as it is here in Africa

And many African countries are blessed with the ability to power economies entirely by hydro, and solar and wind energy

Am incredible fact, Uhuru told me this, Kenya, gets 90 percent of its electricity from renewable sources already

   and they’re aiming for 100 percent by 2030.

And I see a fantastic future for all of us in these initiatives, for all of us

   And we, with our Clean Green Initiative in the UK want to be the partner of choice of our African friends

   as you transform millions of lives with modern infrastructure,

   meeting the highest standards of transparency and environmental protection.

   And it’s because free enterprise generates the resources for better health and education, which is what we’re trying to do, better outcomes for our people

   that here in Rwanda

   infant mortality is down by almost 80 percent since the year 2000,

   nine out of ten people have health insurance in this country,

  virtually every child goes to school.

And that is the kind of future that we want to build together

And all I will see to you in conclusion my friends, is    we in the UK have the technology,

   the City of London certainly has the finance,

the Government that I’m proud to lead has the will,

   and our wonderful wonderful Commonwealth, that great institution, has the super fertiliser, to be sprinkled across this extraordinary grouping of countries

and above all to help to help you forge a new Africa,

   sharing your optimism that the people of this continent 

   and every member of the Commonwealth

   can thrive and prosper from free trade and free enterprise.