Water storage and hydropower development for Africa

AFRICA 2025 opens in Accra, Ghana

Delegates at the Opening Plenary Session of AFRICA 2025

AFRICA 2025 took place in Accra, Ghana, welcoming more than 300 delegates from 47 nations; at least half those present represent African nations.

The event began with a day of plenary sessions, which took the form of high-level panel discussions, led by the World Bank Group, and included participation of the African Development Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, as well as developers from the private and public sectors. Discussions focused on financing mechanisms, risk management, and the importance of improving energy access across Africa, in line with the Mission 300 initiative to provide electricity supplied to 300 million more African people by 2030.

In the evening African dancers greeted everyone arriving at the welcome reception, in the Garden of La Palm hotel overlooking the ocean, which was hosted by Andritz, and was honoured by the presence of the Austrian Ambassador to Ghana.

The conference then broke into parallel technical sessions, with rooms almost over-full and plenty of questions flowing from the audience, after presentations on: construction in challenging site conditions; the design of new African schemes; and, hydraulic machinery.

The exhibition hall remained busy through all the refreshment and lunch breaks, and a networking party will be taking place there after the next rounds of sessions.

An initial overview of the event will feature on the AFRICA 2025 website soon, and in issue 4, and then a full conference report will be published in Issue 5 of the International Journal of Hydropower & Dams.

Delegates entering the AFRICA 2025 exhibition, accompanied by traditional Ghanaian music.