The Assistant Secretary General for Programmes (ASG-P) Amb. Dr Mohamed Kadah has reaffirmed COMESA’s commitment to ensuring that the region implements programmes that support sustainable energy. He says the organisation has been involved in supporting efforts aimed at developing sustainable energy and some actions taken in the past include, the formulation of model policy and regulatory guidelines aimed at facilitating the adoption of good industry practices at country level.
Other initiatives being implemented include advocating for the harmonisation of laws and regulations and the adoption of the Eastern Africa Power Pool as a vehicle for driving electrical power development and trade in the east African region.
The ASG-P said this on Monday 8th September 2025 at the 2nd Africa Climate Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during his address to the delegates. This was at the launch of the Continental Energy Program for Africa (CEPA) inaugurated by the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Ms. Teresa Ribera.
EU through CEPA will support AUC, AUDA-NEPAD and African Energy Commission (AFREC) for 4 years by implementing Continental, Regional and National activities in the 55 countries of the African Union which covers the COMESA region.
Amb. Kadah said COMESA has also supported regional power interconnection projects such as the preparation of the Zambia-Tanzania Power interconnector, which is a section of the Zambia-Tanzania-Kenya power interconnector, which by 2028, is poised to link the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP) and the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP).
He elaborated on other projects such as the Mission300, a programme aiming to deliver electricity access to 300million people across the African continent. Through the Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Access Transformation Programme (ASCENT), COMESA is working with the World Bank to support the delivery of electricity connections to 100million people, and clean cooking solutions to 20 million people in Eastern and Southern Africa. The 100million electricity connections target through the ASCENT Programme accounts for about 30% of the mission300 target.
In addition, COMESA is currently implementing a regional component of ASCENT aptly dubbed the Regional Energy Access Acceleration Platform (REAAP), which is meant to support ASCENT participating countries in scaling up access to clean, affordable, and reliable energy. “This platform is designed to be agile, responsive and inclusive providing tailored technical assistance, policy support and capacity building to countries at different stages of their energy transition,’’ Amb. Dr Kadah said.
Through technical assistance support to be delivered through the REAPP, COMESA expects to help resolve some of the well-known barriers to increased access to energy services while promoting regional cooperation through joint delivery of regional energy solutions.