10 October 2013, 2013, Washington – U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, Thursday hosted African finance ministers for a roundtable discussion on creating frameworks to encourage investment in Africa’s electricity sector.
Secretary Lew emphasized that greater access to energy will create economic opportunities in Africa that have the potential to transform Africa’s economy and boost global growth.
He highlighted President Obama’s Power Africa Initiative and committed to work with other nations and the multilateral development institutions to increase the number of households and businesses in Africa with access to power by 20 million and to bring on line 10,000 megawatts of new power production capacity in Africa over the next five years.
Participants at the meeting: Ethiopian Minister of Finance and Economic Development Sufian Ahmed; White House Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics Caroline Atkinson; International Finance Corporation CEO Jin-Yong Cai; U.S. Treasury Under Secretary for International Affairs Lael Brainard and Export-Import Bank of the U.S. Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg.
Others are African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka; World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, Liberian Minister of Finance Amara Konneh, Overseas Private Investment Corporation President Elizabeth Littlefield, Tanzanian Finance Minister William Mgimwa, Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Ambassador Carlos Pascual, State Department Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs; Kenyan Cabinet Secretary of National Treasury Henry Rotich, International Monetary Fund African Department Director Antoinette Monsio Sayeh and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah.