Shifting the narrative: from aid to investment

Joseph Nganga is currently serving as Special Envoy for Mission300 – a joint initiative from the World Bank and the African Development Bank aiming to deliver electricity access to 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.

He is the immediate former Vice President for Africa at the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, a key figure in Africa’s energy and climate space. He was the CEO of the Inaugural Africa Climate Summit in 2023. Mr. Nganga focuses on advancing sustainable investments to drive Africa’s climate positive development. He discussed the growing shift towards long-term investments, the key role of climate finance, and how partnerships, such as those with Belgium, can unlock Africa’s potential in energy, infrastructure, and green industrialisation.

Development aid is under increasing scrutiny worldwide. Why do you think that is?

This wave of changes is driven by several factors. Many governments funding international development are facing immense pressure on their budgets, which gives them two options: either raise taxes, often not palatable from a political perspective, or reduce expenses – often targeting what is least objectionable, such as foreign aid. In addition, there is a growing sense of donor fatigue. Aid has been going on for a long time, leading people to question when recipients will become self-sufficient. Finally, there is also the global, political context in which states are increasingly looking inwards making development aid less attractive.

There might, however, be a silver lining to the current development aid crisis: it forces African countries to relook at their own capabilities and talents, and represents an opportunity for citizens to hold their leaders accountable. It is also an opportunity for the development community to rethink how they are doing things. The challenge is the abrupt halt of development assistance, which risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

As international cooperation evolves, how can we shift from traditional models toward a more equitable, partnership-based narrative that reflects today’s global challenges and opportunities?

From the onset, Enabel has been taking important steps in rethinking international cooperation – by ensuring that in addition to the most critical support, we are also driving long-term, solution-oriented partnerships. The key question is: how do we operate as true partners, as opposed to the traditional beneficiary-benefactor dynamic?

True partnerships can create powerful win-win opportunities. Belgium, with its expertise in infrastructure, shipping, and hydrogen, is well-positioned to collaborate with African countries like Sierra Leone, which is developing in these areas. Sierra Leone’s deep-water port, for instance, has the potential to become a strategic West African hub – but unlocking that potential requires both technology and financing.

Overcoming information gaps and aligning Belgium’s capabilities with Sierra Leone’s needs and investment-ready projects is key. The Port of Antwerp-Bruges offers a strong model, not just in port development but also in efficient management and could serve as a valuable partner. By channelling part of its development budget into structuring a major infrastructure project in Sierra Leone, Belgium could help address critical infrastructure gaps, support economic growth, and foster job creation. In return, Belgium would export its expertise, earn returns on investment, and deepen its ties in the region, making it a truly mutually beneficial partnership.

From an African standpoint, what priorities should African countries focus on to shape and lead this new narrative?

At the 2025 SeforAll Global Forum in March, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados referred to the cricket game – saying that one must play on the pitch as it is, and not start asking for a better one. This idea aligns with the narrative of the Africa Climate Summit, emphasising the need for African countries to start from their own strengths and resources.

African governments must be willing to be innovative and be thoughtful about how to solve their problems and unlock their opportunities. This includes encouraging more investment from Africans themselves, as there is a growing interest in leveraging Africa’s own capital and savings to fund infrastructure development.

We are seeing interest and commitments such as the upcoming Green Bond issuance by Tanzania, the partnering between the Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund (NSIA) and Africa 50 to invest in Nigeria’s electricity sector as well as the collaboration amongst Nigerian pension funds led by Access ARM Pensions and supported by Infracredit to provide de-risking guarantees to the pension funds. Additionally, approaches like tokenization allow for investment structures tailored for smaller ticket sizes for local retail investors and ensuring transparency and accessibility in these new financial mechanisms leading to broad participation and trust.

Cross-border collaboration and inter-Africa trade are also critical. As one of the key agenda items in the Dar es Salaam Declaration on Energy Access, African Presidents have committed to supporting and prioritizing the development of regional transmission lines to enhance cross-border energy connectivity within and across Africa’s power pools, advancing the goals of Mission300.

Why is this so important? African countries have relatively small markets and the utilities are largely unbankable, so long-term investments can be risky if reliant on a single energy utility in one country. However, creating interconnections between multiple countries reduces risk and allows for larger projects that benefit from economies of scale. The interconnectors also ensure asset optimisation, where countries with excess power generation such as Ethiopia can sell to those with significant generation deficits such as South Sudan. This, in turn, helps drive affordable electrification, which is key to unlocking Africa’s potential in mineral wealth, value-added green industries, and broader economic growth.

This regional integration allows African countries to engage from a point of strength and coordination, creating a greater negotiating power than if each country were acting individually.

How can we start facilitating these conversations to take place, and bring the right actors together to turn ideas into investment?

To drive real economic transformation, we must start linking climate-positive and energy investments with industrial development. Tanzania is a prime example. It has nearly two gigawatts of excess power generation and one of the world’s largest iron ore deposits. Instead of exporting raw materials, the country could invest in smelters to produce green steel. With the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), low-carbon industrial products like green steel can become highly valuable exports. Strategic partnerships with European companies and supportive trade policies could make this vision a reality.

This requires connecting the dots across sectors; energy, mining, manufacturing, and trade policy. Doing so demands strong analytical capabilities and integrated data. However, governments often lack the technical capacity or are overwhelmed by fragmented donor agendas.

That’s where a more coordinated, country-led approach becomes critical. The Country Platform model offers a solution by uniting government, investors, development partners, and international organisations around national priorities, ideally supported by shared digital tools that enhance collaboration and data-driven decision making. Crucially, Ministries of Economy and Finance must be involved early, as they hold key levers for climate action. Initiatives like the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action, co-chaired by Uganda and the Netherlands, are essential to embedding climate goals into economic planning.

In 2023, you acted as the CEO of the inaugural Africa Climate Summit. What key outcomes do you hope to see at the upcoming 2025 Summit?

I’m expecting that the Africa Climate Summit 2025 in Ethiopia will advance our climate goals. The Nairobi Summit secured $26 billion in pledges, and we must now assess how much has been disbursed and hold ourselves accountable.

Building on Africa’s resources, we need global partnerships in technology and finance to tackle climate change while fostering development. A key focus is evaluating progress on the Nairobi Declaration and addressing challenges like climate finance gaps and debt. I hope the proposal to rebase GDP, factoring in mineral wealth to boost borrowing for infrastructure, gains traction.

Maintaining the momentum from ACS 2023, we should unite stakeholders in a collective push, much like mutirão, the Brazilian tradition of community working together towards a common goal, and apply the same to our own Africa Climate Summit. By coming together as a collective force, we can drive the changes needed for delivering the continent’s climate and energy ambitions.

What role do you see Enabel and Belgian actors playing in facilitating the climate and energy transition?

I believe Enabel is working in alignment with the broader shift from traditional development aid towards more equitable, sustainable partnerships that support long-term transformation. By supporting Ministries of Finance, such as in Mozambique, Enabel helps governments integrate climate priorities into national planning and economic strategies. This kind of support strengthens local ownership, which is essential to advancing initiatives like the Country Platform approach, where coordination across public and private actors is critical to achieving impact at scale.

However, for these strategies to attract real investment, the other side of the table – those with capital, technology, and infrastructure, – must also recognise the opportunity. This is where Enabel could play a key facilitative role: supporting governments in identifying and shaping investable opportunities, perhaps through frameworks or digital tools that help structure project data and analysis, and helping frame them in ways that resonate with Belgian and European private sector actors.

In the context of the Africa Climate Summit, Belgium could bring valuable technology and business model expertise. As an early supporter of this year’s Africa Climate Summit, Enabel’s role could be to ensure these are brought into the conversation, while also framing the narrative to highlight Africa’s potential. Increasing awareness is essential, which is why we could facilitate direct engagement between Belgian companies and African stakeholders; including targeted meetings and the development of concrete instruments, such as MOUs, that can be formalised at the summit.