Announcement of the Stakeholders’ Meeting and Information Workshop (10 and 11 October 2012)

The African Union Commission (AUC), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Development (BMZ) and the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund (EU-ITF) via KfW, have established the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility (GRMF) for Eastern Africa. The GRMF, which is a 50 Million Euro project to be hosted and managed by the African Union Commission (AUC), was launched in April 2012 and will consist of a series of application rounds that will result in grants to cover a portion of the upfront risk for geothermal energy developers. The programme will co-finance exploration studies and drilling of geothermal energy resources as well as associated infrastructure aimed at developing this largely untapped indigenous and renewable energy resource.

Accordingly, the AUC will be hosting a Stakeholders' Meeting as well as an Information Workshop on the 10th and 11th of October 2012 respectively, at its New Conference Centre, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Stakeholders' Meeting will allow key decision and policy makers to get insight into the potential resources, how that potential can be developed and how the GRMF programme will contribute towards meeting future investments in geothermal energy into the broader context of regional energy sector development including providing a balance for the seasonality of hydropower.

The Information workshop will in turn provide useful information about the GRMF to potential investors, including the main processes such as prequalification application round, evaluation grant agreement and grant provision.

The participants invited to the meeting and workshop include public institutions, intergovernmental agencies, 14 Eastern Africa Rift System countries (EARS) and donors' organizations active in the geothermal development in Eastern Africa.