scholarly journals Towards a Blockchain Special Purpose Vehicle for Financing Independent Renewable Electricity Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olakunle Alao ◽  
Paul Cuffe
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Renewable Electricity ◽  
Special Purpose Vehicle ◽  
Revenue Collection ◽  
Main Challenge ◽  
Debt Finance ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Sustainable Electricity

Sub-Saharan Africa requires affordable, reliable, and sustainable electricity to boost its economic, social, and human development. The main challenge posed to the region's electricity sector is the large investment gap needed to finance new power projects. The employment of new and innovative financing options is required to bridge this investment gap. Independent power projects have become one of the fastest-growing sources of new finance in the region. However, their development is constrained by the limited availability of debt finance for project implementation. The limited capital and bureaucratic burden of traditional financial institutions coupled with the high risks in the region ensures that the debt finance required by independent power projects is raised only after an arduous voyage and at high interest rates. We address these challenges by proposing a novel decentralized finance instrument, a blockchain special purpose vehicle that streamlines the processes in the financial layer of a traditional special purpose vehicle -- finance mobilization, revenue collection, and revenue disbursal. Specifically, the proposed decentralized finance instrument facilitates the mobilization of finance for the special purpose vehicle from a location-independent crowd, revenue collection from the electricity offtaker in a risk-mitigated manner, and disbursal of eventual project revenues to investors.

scholarly journals Towards a Blockchain Special Purpose Vehicle for Financing Independent Renewable Electricity Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olakunle Alao ◽  
Paul Cuffe
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Renewable Electricity ◽  
Special Purpose Vehicle ◽  
Revenue Collection ◽  
Main Challenge ◽  
Debt Finance ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Sustainable Electricity

Sub-Saharan Africa requires affordable, reliable, and sustainable electricity to boost its economic, social, and human development. The main challenge posed to the region's electricity sector is the large investment gap needed to finance new power projects. The employment of new and innovative financing options is required to bridge this investment gap. Independent power projects have become one of the fastest-growing sources of new finance in the region. However, their development is constrained by the limited availability of debt finance for project implementation. The limited capital and bureaucratic burden of traditional financial institutions coupled with the high risks in the region ensures that the debt finance required by independent power projects is raised only after an arduous voyage and at high interest rates. We address these challenges by proposing a novel decentralized finance instrument, a blockchain special purpose vehicle that streamlines the processes in the financial layer of a traditional special purpose vehicle -- finance mobilization, revenue collection, and revenue disbursal. Specifically, the proposed decentralized finance instrument facilitates the mobilization of finance for the special purpose vehicle from a location-independent crowd, revenue collection from the electricity offtaker in a risk-mitigated manner, and disbursal of eventual project revenues to investors.

scholarly journals Caring for HIV-positive children: healthcare providers' pre-and post-disclosure experiences in Nairobi, Kenya

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Drusilla Makworo ◽  
Theresa Odero
Keyword(s):  
Health Professionals ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Hiv Disclosure ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Hiv Positive ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
High Resource ◽  
Main Challenge ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Sub Saharan

Background The number of children living with HIV has increased worldwide, largely due to improvements in antiretroviral therapy. Most of these children are living in sub-Saharan Africa. The rate of disclosure to children of their HIV-positive status is low in low-resource countries compared to high-resource countries. Aim To explore health professionals' experiences of caring for HIV-positive children before and after their HIV-positive status was disclosed to them. The health professionals included nurses, counsellors, nutritionists, social workers, pharmacists and clinicians with at least 1 year of experience at the paediatric section of the comprehensive care centre. Methods Nine health professionals were interviewed. Findings Results revealed that there were more challenges before disclosure than after. The main challenge was communicating with the children. The children's main concerns before disclosures included the reason for treatment and its duration, and clinic follow-up. Conclusions Health professionals should be trained on the benefits of HIV disclosure to children, in order to allow for open and direct communication between healthcare providers, parents/carers and children.

Neoliberal Reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa's Electricity Sector

2021 ◽  
pp. 410-430
Author(s):  
Chigozie Nweke-Eze
Keyword(s):  
Electricity Markets ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Weak Institutions ◽  
Neoliberal Reforms ◽  
Regulatory Measures ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Poor Outcomes ◽  
Implementation Status ◽  
Ssa Countries

Based on literature review and documents analyses, this contribution discusses the processes, implementation, experiences and impacts of the neoliberal electricity-sector reform in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The study generally finds poor implementation status and experiences as well as little improvement in the performance of the electricity sector as a result of the reforms, in the reviewed and analyzed SSA countries. The study identifies the reasons for the general poor outcomes of the reforms to be non-existence of truly independent electricity regulatory agencies, weak institutions and non-existence of unhampered competition among players in the electricity markets in most SSA context. The study suggests implementation of more tailored reform alternatives which suit existing political, social, and institutional characteristics and conditions of the SSA countries, namely: hybrid electricity markets and complementary regulatory measures.

scholarly journals Why prepaid technologies are not a panacea for inclusive and sustainable rural water services in Tanzania?

Water Policy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 925-942
Author(s):  
Hans C. Komakech ◽  
Lukas Kwezi ◽  
Mansoor Ali
Keyword(s):  
Cost Recovery ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Water Services ◽  
Revenue Collection ◽  
Water Users ◽  
Operation And Maintenance ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Rural Water ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
One Year

Abstract Poor sustainability of rural water schemes is a major problem in service delivery in sub-Saharan Africa. About half of the schemes fail one year after commissioning, mostly due to poor operation and maintenance. Many communities fail to collect and manage water revenue. Prepaid technologies are argued to remedy the poor water revenue management. However, it is not clear to what extent prepaid systems can contribute to the sustainability of rural water schemes. This paper assessed the performance of three different cases where prepaid technologies were used in Tanzania. Although the technologies used can simplify water revenue collection, they are not a panacea to deliver sustainable and equitable water services. The capital cost of the prepaid system is often paid for by donors, which is not being recovered, hence the notion of cost recovery is biased here. Also, a strong institutional capacity and knowledge is required alongside the technology. Therefore, the technology which is being promoted as better for improving cost recovery is, instead, causing a burden on water users.

Debt, revenue woes to push African states to seek help

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Financial Management ◽  
Sovereign Debt ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Municipal Bond ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Finance Minister ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Commercial Sources ◽  
The Government

Subject Outlook for sovereign debt in sub-Saharan Africa. Significance Nigerian Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun on January 31 announced that the government is in "exploratory talks" with the World Bank to borrow 2.5 billion dollars. Squeezed by low commodity revenues, sub-Saharan African states (SSA) are struggling to manage their external debt, which has grown by 90% to 46.5 billion dollars overall during 2010-14, much of it from commercial sources. Impacts South Africa will dominate SSA municipal bond issuance since most states lack adequate subnational financial management. Donors may use the new loans to Angola and Nigeria as leverage for sharper currency depreciation. Yet this would pressure central banks, which will likely raise interest rates to support thier currency and mitigate inflation. Despite falling copper revenues, Zambia will likely delay seeking IMF assistance since reform conditions will prove politically toxic.

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