Renewables investors flock to west Sahelian frontier
A flurry of solar power projects have advanced in the African region over the last six months as support from international development finance programmes starts to yield results
The landlocked countries of the western Sahel rarely catch the attention of international investors— not least those interested in the power sector—for whom the area’s poor and mainly rural populations and weak governance offer little commercial appeal. However, global development institutions have long recognised the potential for widening access to electricity to stimulate economic growth and alleviate poverty. And with vast expanses of sparsely populated, sun-baked land available and decarbonisation momentum building, a direct jump to solar power—skipping fossil fuels—makes monetary and environmental sense. Financing and technical support programmes to that end, notably from the African D

Also in this section
22 July 2025
Sinopec hosts launch of global sharing platform as Beijing looks to draw on international investors and expertise
22 July 2025
Africa’s most populous nation puts cap-and-trade and voluntary markets at the centre of its emerging strategy to achieve net zero by 2060
17 July 2025
Oil and gas companies will face penalties if they fail to reach the EU’s binding CO₂ injection targets for 2030, but they could also risk building underused and unprofitable CCS infrastructure
9 July 2025
Latin American country plans a cap-and-trade system and supports the scale-up of CCS as it prepares to host COP30