United Nations South Africa 27d ago

Africa's clean energy transition is not short of projects or talent — it is short of a financing architecture that reflects reality. In this conversation, we unpack one of the most misunderstood dynamics in African energy investment: the burden that falls on developers who are already performing and already proven yet are still expected to self-fund, sell down equity and absorb risks that the system should distribute more fairly. South Africa leads sub-Saharan Africa in independent power producer development — and even here the structural pressures are immense. Elsewhere on the continent in markets like Nigeria progress is fragmented and slow because governments are not yet positioned to backstop the guarantees private investors need. Development finance institutions have a defining role to play. By stepping in to take first-loss positions they unlock the confidence private capital needs to follow — accelerating the clean energy investment that is central to the UN's climate agenda and Africa's sustainable development future ahead of COP31. The question was never whether the risk is real. The question is who should be carrying it — and why.