ADDIS ABABA- The Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) launched during the 2018 Summit of the Africa Union has covered over 700 million people living in 28 member countries, the continental organization announced yesterday.
The African Union Commission (AUC) has been undertaking intensive advocacy for more states, and currently 27 member states; Benin, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo and Zimbabwe are in the market.
The Commission targets a total of 40 member states to join the market by the end of the year 2019 and all member states by 2021, AU Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy Dr. Abdoul-ZeidAmani told the press conference.
As part of the flagship project of the Agenda 2063, the SAATM is expected to speed up connectivity across the continent leading to sustainable development of the aviation and tourism industries with immense contribution to economic growth, job creation, prosperity and integration.
Meanwhile, she also stated that the African Union has prepared a pipeline of 30 projects with a potential of 2700MW to support projects with grants amounting to US$ 117 million and expected to leverage US$ 9.2 billion. “The AU has been working to develop a harmonized and transmission tariff methodology by the Ministerial Sub-Committee of Energy to harness the rich variety renewable energy that the continent is endowed with in the course of 2018.”
The AUC has designed programs aimed at dramatically increasing the contribution of renewable energy in the energy mix through policy and strategic interventions for specific renewable energy resources, according to her. To enhance the renewable energy in the continent, the AUC has launched the Renewable Energy for African Island States, Small Hydropower Program, Solar Energy Policy Framework and Bioenergy program, The Ethiopian Herald learnt.
Herald February 9/2019
BY HAFTU GEBREZGABIHER
