Power generation in Africa: Transcorp, GE partner to improve power generation in Nigeria

Agreements will dramatically increase capacity at the Ughelli power plant in 2014

 

LAGOS, Nigeria, January 31, 2014/ -- Transcorp Ughelli Power Ltd (TUPL), the power subsidiary of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp), and General Electric (GE) have signed an agreement to expand the capacity of TUPL’s Ughelli power plant by1000MW over the next 3 to 5 years.

 

Photo Tony Elumelu: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/photos/tony-elumelu.jpg

 

Logo: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/plog-content/images/apo/logos/heirs-holdings.jpg

 

Both parties have also signed a separate agreement to rehabilitate the damaged GT 15 turbine at the Ughelli plant, which will add 115MW to the plant’s output.

 

Currently, the Transcorp Ughelli power plant generates 360MW of electricity, up from 160MW on November 1, when Transcorp took ownership of the plant. With the additional 115MW, as well as other rehabilitation works planned at the plant, output at Ughelli will increase to 700MW by December 2014.

 

More Productive Jobs for Africa s Youth Vital for the Region's Economic Progress, says New WB Report

Washington, January 27, 2014 With more than half of Sub-Saharan Africa's population now under the age of 25, and as many as 11 million young Africans expected to join the labor market every year for the next decade, creating millions of productive, well-paying jobs will be vital to boost economic growth, significantly cut poverty, and create shared prosperity in Africa, according to a new World Bank report on youth employment in Africa.

 While many African economies have registered impressive economic growth in recent years, poverty levels across the region have not fallen as much as expected and young people looking for better-paying work have been at a great disadvantage. This is partly because many African countries rely heavily on oil, gas, and mineral extraction which boosts economic growth but does little to create new jobs for the region s fast-growing youth population or reduce overall rates of poverty. 

 In a new comprehensive regional report on the subject, Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa notes that close to 80 percent of the workforce will continue to work on small farms and in household businesses in the near future. While the modern wage sector is growing very fast in some countries, it cannot create enough jobs to meet the youth employment challenge now preoccupying governments in every corner of the continent.

BAJ-Gambia National Coordinator off to Kenya for climate change training

Sallah BAJ-Gambia National  Coordinator

Mr Abdou Rahman Sallah an environmental journalist with The Point newspaper who doubles as national coordinator for Biodiversity Action Journalists Gambia on Saturday 25^th January left Banjul International Airport for Kenya to join a team of participants from other parts of the world for a two weeks training on Climate Change organized by Youth Encounter on Sustainability (YES) in Kenya

  

He has been selected out of a big pool of applicants to participate to this YES course in Kenya, January 28th – February 14^th 2014. This is a two week intensive course operated by myclimate, a Swiss Non-Profit foundation together with ACTIS, a Spin-off organisation of ETH Zürich, in cooperation with UNEP, and the Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS) – an environmental research partnership between the ETH Zürich, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Tokyo (UT) and the Chalmers Technical University in Göteborg /Sweden.

YES courses have been operated since the year 2000 in different parts of the world with the goal to bring together a diverse group of motivated future leaders (university graduates, PhD students, young professionals) for learning, discussing and debating urgent questions of a sustainable future for mankind, in a global and regional perspective.

AIS Africa Innovation Summit, Cabo Verde 2014

H.E Jorge Carlos Fonseca Welcomes Organisers AIS Summit

The maiden Africa Innovation Summit (AIS) is a catalyst event. It is an integral part of a much broader effort to build a platform for promoting innovation in Africa. The Summit will lay the foundation for an ongoing multi stakeholder dialogue on innovation in Africa. All stakeholders, including policy makers, entrepreneurs, innovators, researchers, academics, and investors will be engaged in a collaborative effort to undertake strategic assessment, seek robust solutions and engage key actors to build a more propitious environment for innovation on the continent.

The three day summit is planned for 04 – 06 February 2014 in Praia, Cape Verde and is expected to will bring together entrepreneurs, innovators, financiers, policy makers and researchers in one place to conduct an extensive dialogue on innovation in Africa.

The President of Cape Verde H.E. Jorge Carlos Fonseca welcomed the organizers of the African Innovation Summit and pledged his support for this initiative.

An initiative by IHABA under the honorary patronage of H.E. Pedro Pires Former President of Cabo Verde (2001-2011), Laureate of the 2011 Mo Ibrahim Award.

Conference to refocus post-2015 development agenda on poorest nations’ priorities

[IIED press release] New ‘sustainable development goals’ for all nations to adopt in 2015 could deepen problems in the least developed countries (LDCs)  if they fail to take account of these nations’ priorities and the international nature of challenges they face.

So say the organisers of a high-level meeting next week that will enable frank and open dialogue between, on one hand, those in the political process of setting the goals and, on the other, those in LDCs who will need to implement the goals if they are to have any impact.

The meeting, on 29-31 January at Wilton Park has been organised by IIED and the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (OHRLLS).

It will bring together politicians, diplomats, civil servants and representatives of UN agencies, research institutions and nongovernmental organisations to explore how the needs of the LDCs can be put at the heart of the post-2015 development agenda. The delegates will include members of the LDC Independent Expert Group, which has published a new position paper to coincide with the meeting.

A united call for action on climate change

Kofi Annan is chair of The Elders, a group of independent leaders who work for peace, justice and human rights worldwide.

 

Kofi Annan

When Nelson Mandela formed the Elders in 2007 to promote peace and human rights across the world, he challenged us to be bold and to give a voice to those who have none. No issue demands these qualities more than our collective failure to tackle climate change.

Climate change is the biggest challenge of our time. It threatens the well-being of hundreds of millions of people today and many billions more in the future. It undermines the human rights to food, water, health and shelter — causes for which we, as Elders, have fought all our lives.
 

No one and no country will escape the impact of climate change. But those with no voice — because they are already marginalized or are not yet born — are at greatest risk. The Elders have an urgent moral duty to speak out on their behalf.

UN Opens Global Call for Nominations of Local Sustainable Development Solutions that Can Change the World

Article By laura.hildebrandit@undp.org

 

New York [22 January, 2014] – A United Nations-led partnership that “shines a spotlight” on local sustainable development innovations today launched its global call for nominations for the Equator Prize 2014.

Today marks the first step in a worldwide search to identify leading community-based initiatives from across the developing world that advance environmental conservation while fighting poverty.  Nominations are open from 146 countries through March 22, 2014.

“We are looking for local environment and development solutions that are having a big impact,” said Helen Clark, Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP). “Communities across the planet are coming up with inspiring solutions to environment, climate, and poverty challenges, and we want to bring their efforts to the world’s attention.”