Country:
Botswana
Organization:
Rocky Mountain Institute
Certificate:
Financing and Deploying Clean Energy
Three Cairns Fellows
Monkgogi Buzwani
Monkgogi Buzwani, a private equity and sustainable financing expert from Botswana, said there are numerous challenges, including a significant electricity gap, limited financing, and fossil fuel dependence, facing the energy sector in sub-Saharan Africa. He enrolled in the Financing and Deploying Clean Energy certificate program to build knowledge and connections he can use to help advance the region’s clean energy transition.
Six hundred million people lack electricity on the African continent — almost all of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Electricity is just one of the challenges facing the region’s energy sector, said Monkgogi Buzwani, a private equity and sustainable finance expert from Botswana. The dependence on fossil fuels and the lack of adequate financing caused by regulatory hurdles, economic instability, and politics risks are also hampering the clean energy transition.
“The challenge is complex. How do we rapidly ramp up electricity connections in the poorest and most remote parts of the continent while also replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy that is cost competitive?” he said. “There is a critical need for funding for early-stage project development to create a strong pipeline of investible projects across the continent.”
Buzwani, who has degrees in mathematics and business from the universities of Manchester and Cambridge, is an associate at Rocky Mountain Institute where he focuses on clean energy and mobility. He creates financial models and mobilizes capital for the adoption of electric vehicles in Africa and southeast Asia and conducts financial analysis focused on EV battery recycling.
He enrolled in the Financing and Deploying Clean Energy certificate program to develop new skills in policy, technology, and sustainable financing to better support the deployment of clean energy technology. The program also provides him with invaluable opportunities to engage with and learn from accomplished practitioners, he said.
“Ultimately, I hope to come away with more refined skills in how to innovatively finance and structure investments that drive meaningful decarbonization,” Buzwani said. “There is also a really strong cohort of students working in support of the transition from different angles and countries, and the resulting melting pot of ideas has been truly enlightening.”
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