Energy Capital&Power (www.EnergyCapitalPower.com) officially denounces the disruptive and unprofessional behavior of the African Energies Summit organizers in selecting overlapping dates with the Invest in African Energy (IAE) 2025 forum.

On May 9, event organizers ECP launched the official dates for the 2025 edition of the IAE forum as May 14-15, serving as an exclusive forum designed to facilitate investment between African energy markets and global investors. Today – over one week later – Africa Energies Summit in London announced its 2025 dates as May 13-15, deliberately and maliciously overlapping with the dates already announced by ECP.

ECP is disappointed by the behavior of the Africa Energies Summit organizers, who selected these dates with the intent to split audiences and cause confusion between the two events.

The mission of the IAE forum is to connect Africa’s immense hydrocarbon, mineral and renewable resources with the global investment community, with a view to eradicating energy poverty and supporting industrialized growth across the continent.  As a result, the forum stands in complete opposition to the practice of confusing potential delegates, co-opting dates and diverting attention from the core issue at hand – investment in African energy.  

“We are extremely disappointed to see unprofessional, and frankly, spiteful behavior from a company that claims to promote Africa’s interests, especially after communicating to them the IAE 2025 dates in advance. This behavior is not conducive to the growth of Africa’s energy industry. As a leading advocate for the sector, the Chamber wants to work with people – not against them. Africa wins when people collaborate,” states Sandra Jeque, IAE Conference Director.

Set to run for its third consecutive year, the IAE forum has evolved into Africa’s premier energy project showcase outside of Africa, uniting projects from all four corners of the continent to the global investment stage. IAE 2025 is set to catalyze new sources of capital and continue promoting the role of diversified energy investment in Africa’s energy security and transition. 

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital&Power.

Parliamentary Commissioner and Nyendo – Mukungwe Member of Parliament, Hon. Mathias Mpuuga has called on government to plan for mental health services in all its departments and agencies.

Mpuuga said the same efforts should eventually be spread to the private sector just as it is in the case with HIV/AIDS.

“One of the biggest approaches that curtailed HIV/AIDS was mainstreaming it in all sectors and all activities. Now we can attest to a very serious reduction in the spread of HIV/AIDS. Is it hard to do the same for mental health in all we do? Mpuuga wondered.

Mpuuga made this call at the opening of the mental health camp at Parliament on Tuesday, 21 May 2023.

Mpuuga also wants government to respond to the occasional mental health drug stock outs at Butabika National Referral Hospital.

The Chairperson for the Parliamentary Forum on Mental Health, Hon. Geoffrey Macho said that additional funds are required to support Butabika Hospital which he said lacks basic needs like accommodation for patients.

“In case any supplementary budget is tabled, the hospital should be considered being the only national referral hospital handling mental health,” Macho said adding that, ‘it was planned for 400 patients but now they have more than 1200 patients who go to  an extent of fighting for mattresses’.

He reiterated the need for Parliament to fast-track the Alcohol Control Bill which he feared might be ‘fought’ by the breweries companies.

The Assistant Commissioner for Mental Health at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Hafsa Lukwata re-echoed the urgency for Parliament to process the Alcohol Control Bill, noting that substance abuse is the leading cause for mental health illness among the youth.

The Deputy Director of Butabika Hospital, Dr. Byamah Mutamba on his part asked for an increased funding to be able to reach out to communities, a strategy he says would reduce patients at the oversubscribed Butabika.

“As a national referral hospital, it is our mandate to take services to primary health care centres and in communities. This way, we would not have many patients at the hospital,” said Dr Mutamba.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda.

The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund – the African Development Bank Group’s (www.AfDB.org) concessional financing window – approved a grant of $42.86 million to Ethiopia on 22 May 2024 to fund the implementation of the Agri-MSMEs development for jobs Program.  

Aimed at boosting the growth and productivity of youth and women-led MSMEs in Ethiopia, the program focuses on improving access to finance, providing business development services, and strengthening the entrepreneurship enabling environment.

AfDB’s financing is bolstered by a $10 million contribution from the Development Bank of Ethiopia and $6.24 million from the Ethiopian Government. These will significantly boost this promising initiative seeking to eliminate the barriers to finance access for youth and women entrepreneurs’ access in Ethiopia.

The project aims to enhance the growth and productivity of over 8,000 micro, small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) led by young people and women. Emphasizing the transformational nature of the project, AfDB Deputy Director General for East Africa, Dr Abdul Kamara, stated, “The project interventions are timely and will support major sector reforms that will help strengthen the strategic and institutional framework for financial inclusion, and youth- and women-led entrepreneurship development in Ethiopia”.  

The project comprises two pillars. One seeks to expand access to finance and non-financial services for youth and women led agri-MSMEs, with institutional capacity strengthening for the main institutional providers of non-financial services. Not only will it support financial institutions to increase lending to youth and women-led Agri-MSMEs, it will also improve the quality and range of services offered by key public and private sector entrepreneurship service providers.

These enhancements are designed to increase the quality of business development services and promote stronger linkages across different service providers. Ms Martha Phiri, AfDB Director for Human Development confirmed that “the project focus on youth and women entrepreneurs will immensely contribute to advancing the inclusive growth agenda and gender commitments of the Bank”.

The second pilar centres on designing, establishing and deploying the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank (YEIB) (https://apo-opa.co/44QwcvG) framework. Its goal is to offer long-term financial and non-financial support to mitigate risks for youth entrepreneurs and nurture their talents and entrepreneurial spirit. The support includes a management company to oversee an equity investment fund providing long-term patient capital to youth businesses in the form of equity and quasi equity. The management company will also work closely with the national Public Credit Guarantee Scheme under design to provide guarantees to financial institutions to incentivise them to lend to youth businesses, which are most often asset-light, without collateral. It will also work closely with the Entrepreneurship Development Institute under the Ministry of Labour and Skills to build MSME capacity.

The Bank’s Acting Director of Financial Sector Development, Mr Ahmed Attout explained that, “The YEIB aims to transform hurdles for young entrepreneurs by acting as ecosystem anchor, convening stakeholders, achieving financial synergies, and establishing youth entrepreneurs as an attractive investment asset class.”

The project implementation emphasizes collaboration with the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program, seeking to capitalize on opportunities for strengthening  businesses, while focusing on climate adaptation through capacity building and empowerment initiatives.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

Media contact:
Alexis Adélé
Communication and External Relations Department
media@afdb.org

About the African Development Bank Group:
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is the premier multilateral financing institution dedicated to Africa’s development. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NSF). The AfDB has a field presence in 41 African countries, with an external office in Japan, and contributes to the economic development and social progress of its 54 regional member states. For more information: www.AfDB.org

On May 22, 2024 the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Sergei Lukashevich, received copies of Credentials of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to the Republic of Belarus, Cham Ugala Uriat.

The meeting was timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the countries. On this occasion, congratulatory messages were conveyed on behalf of the President and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus.  

The sides noted their mutual interest in more active use of the existing potential of bilateral relations and bringing them to a higher level. During the meeting, the parties discussed promising areas of Belarusian-Ethiopian cooperation in industry, agriculture and food security, as well as the development of the legal framework for bilateral cooperation.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus.