By Mabel Adorkor Annang
The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, says Russia is committed to working together with Africa to expand its Energy Sector.
Speaking at the second Russia-African Business and Humanitarian Forum at St. Petersburg, Russia, Mr. Putin said Russian companies are implementing new mutually beneficial projects to meet the growing demands of Africans for fuel and electricity generation capacity.
He said this collaboration will provide Africa with access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly Energy sources.
Over the years, Soviet and Russian specialists have designed and built large Energy centers in Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, and other African countries with a total Energy capacity of 4.6 gigawatts, a quarter of Africa’s hydropower capacity.
ROSATOM, the leading Company in Nuclear Energy in Russia, is building a Nuclear Power plant in Dabaa, Egypt.
However, Ghana is not exempt, as ROSATOM is engaging the Ghanaian government on technologies that can be adopted in building Nuclear Power Plant in the country.
ROSATOM is introducing a floating nuclear technology, which may attract the attention of Ghana, as the government decides. With this rich experience, the Russians have the appropriate technology to develop their Nuclear power potential.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a Plenary session at the Second Russia-African Forum currently ongoing at St. Petersburg, Russia, that Russia is currently involved in developing about 30 Energy projects in 16 African countries.
“More than 30 promising energy projects with Russian participation in 16 African states are now in varying degrees of development. The total capacity of the power projects we are working on is about 3.7 gigawatts. Our company “RusHydro” offers a wide range of services to African partners – from the design and supply of equipment to the modernization and construction of new turnkey generation facilities. Gazprom, Rosneft, Lukoil, Zarubezhneft are our companies that are engaged in the development of oil and gas fields in Algeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Nigeria, and the Republic of the Congo. Over the past two years, exports of Russian crude oil, petroleum products, and liquefied natural gas to Africa have increased by 2.6 times.”
He added, ” Rosatom, our leading company in the use of nuclear energy, is building the Dabaa nuclear power plant in Egypt. At the same time, our state corporation can provide African countries with its unique experience and technologies that have no analogues in the world in the field of non-energy use of the “peaceful atom”, for example, in medicine and in agriculture.”
On the sidelines of the Forum, ROSATOM signed an Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe on cooperation in the field of exploiting atomic energy for peaceful purposes.
Zhemu Soda, Minister of Energy and Power Development of the Republic of Zimbabwe, signed on behalf of Zimbabwe, and Likhachev Alexey, Director General of the State Atomic Energy Corporation, ROSATOM.