The Hertie School Africa Alumni Network launches its Speaker Series

On 26 February, the Hertie School Africa Alumni Network launched its Speaker Series with an online panel discussion titled “Powering the Future: Africa’s Role in the Global Energy Transition”. The event brought together participants from diverse backgrounds and world regions to explore how African countries can pursue a just energy transition while addressing urgent development needs. 

Osita Abana (MPP 2020), the Network Lead, opened the event. “This gathering brings me great joy,” he said, “not only because we'll be exchanging ideas on a topic that's critical to Africa's development, but because it has brought us all together as a community.” 

Student Vermon Washington (MPP) moderated the session. He reminded participants of the paradoxes at the heart of Africa’s energy transition. “Often Africa is described as one of the most vulnerable continents when it comes to climate change, but [it is also] one of the continents with the greatest renewable energy potential in the world… The real conversation,” he argued, “is about development. It's about access. It's about fairness.”

Three alumni speakers led the discussion:

• Rukaiya el-Rufai (MPP 2008), Special Advisor to the President on the National Economic Council (NEC) and Climate Change in Nigeria, hosted by the Office of the Vice President
• Nibwene Mwakibinga (MIA 2024), independent researcher in energy and climate policy
• Emmanuel Makumba Mali (PhD), (MPP 2012), acting Director for Peace and Security at the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) in Burundi

Their discussion focussed on key obstacles to Africa’s energy transition, including limited financing, links between critical raw materials and conflict, the complex politics of fossil fuel phase-out, and how to ensure a just energy transition on a continent where hundreds of millions lack access to electricity. 

Finance is the key to unlocking Africa’s energy transition

Rukaiya el-Rufai highlighted finance as the core issue of Africa’s energy transition. In Nigeria, she explained, demand-side subsidies remain widely used because many households cannot afford the true cost of energy, which limits funding for clean energy projects. “We have a huge part of the population [with] energy poverty. It's important that we leverage the opportunities that energy transition brings, so that we solve and address this developmental need.”

The energy transition can be a driver of conflict

Emmanuel Mali discussed how Africa’s natural resource wealth can fuel conflict. The Great Lakes Region is rich in the critical raw materials needed for the energy transition, but armed groups enrich themselves from their extraction. “We have close to seven million people displaced in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is one of the richest places in the world when it comes to the resources needed for [clean energy] technologies." He stressed the need to “ensure that there's a win-win situation, [that] we not only produce sustainable energy solutions, but also solutions which end conflict”.

The politics of fossil fuel phase-out

Nibwene Mwakibinga said that “fossil fuel phase-outs are going to be a very big challenge”, especially in fossil fuel-dependent countries like Angola and emerging producers such as Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania and Senegal. Phase-out debates, she noted, can become politically charged because they imply “loss of revenue or potential revenues, and this might bring conflict between civil society, communities and governments”. 

What a just energy transition in Africa looks like in practice 

When the conversation turned to just energy transition, the panellists agreed that the primary responsibility is towards Africa’s 600 million people who lack access to electricity. Rukaiya argued that justice means balancing climate goals with basic needs, and that each African country has a unique energy transition pathway and must “own our own journey”. 

Emmanuel described governance tools to prevent conflict-linked minerals from entering supply chains of clean energy technologies, including certification and auditing to ensure that minerals are “free from conflict financing, human rights abuse, and corruption”. 

Nibwene focussed on debt burdens that restrict climate investment: “Global South countries are currently spending five times more on repaying debts than…addressing the impacts of climate change.” She pointed to debt-for-climate swaps as one pathway to free fiscal space for transition and energy access.

Watch a live recording of the discussion below: