Obama to give Africa 300 Billion for infrastructure growth

[vector7]

The White House





Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
June 30, 2013







FACT SHEET: Power Africa

Today the President announced Power Africa, a new initiative to double access to power in sub-Saharan Africa. More than two-thirds of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is without electricity, and more than 85 percent of those living in rural areas lack access. Power Africa will build on Africa’s enormous power potential, including new discoveries of vast reserves of oil and gas, and the potential to develop clean geothermal, hydro, wind and solar energy. It will help countries develop newly-discovered resources responsibly, build out power generation and transmission, and expand the reach of mini-grid and off-grid solutions.

According to the International Energy Agency, sub-Saharan Africa will require more than $300 billion in investment to achieve universal electricity access by 2030.

Only with greater private sector investment can the promise of Power Africa be realized. With an initial set of six partner countries in its first phase, Power Africa will add more than 10,000 megawatts of cleaner, more efficient electricity generation capacity. It will increase electricity access by at least 20 million new households and commercial entities with on-grid, mini-grid, and off-grid solutions. And it will enhance energy resource management capabilities, allowing partner countries to meet their critical energy needs and achieve greater energy security.

Power Africa is Rooted in Partnership

The United States and its partners will work with an initial set of Power Africa partner countries, including Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, and Tanzania. These countries have set ambitious goals in electric power generation and are making the utility and energy sector reforms to pave the way for investment and growth. Power Africa will also partner with Uganda and Mozambique on responsible oil and gas resources management.

Power Africa will bring to bear a wide range of U.S. government tools to support investment in Africa’s energy sector. From policy and regulatory best practices, to pre-feasibility support and capacity building, to long-term financing, insurance, guarantees, credit enhancements and technical assistance Power Africa will provide coordinated support to help African partners expand their generation capacity and access.

The United States will commit more than $7 billion in financial support over the next five years to this effort, including:

• The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide $285 million in technical assistance, grants and risk mitigation to advance private sector energy transactions and help governments adopt and implement the policy, regulatory, and other reforms necessary to attract private sector investment in the energy and power sectors.
• The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) will commit up to $1.5 billion in financing and insurance to energy projects in sub-Saharan Africa.
• The U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) will make available up to $5 billion in support of U.S. exports for the development of power projects across sub-Saharan Africa.
• The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) will invest up to $1 billion in African power systems through its country compacts to increase access and the reliability and sustainability of electricity supply through investments in energy infrastructure, policy and regulatory reforms and institutional capacity building.
• OPIC and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) will provide up to $20 million in project preparation, feasibility and technical assistance grants to develop renewable energy projects. These efforts will be coordinated through the U.S. - Africa Clean Energy Finance Initiative (US-ACEF) and supported by the recently launched U.S. - Africa Clean Energy Development and Finance Center (CEDFC) in Johannesburg, South Africa.
• The U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) will launch a $2 million Off-Grid Energy Challenge to provide grants of up to $100,000 to African-owned and operated enterprises to develop or expand the use of proven technologies for off-grid electricity benefitting rural and marginal populations.
• In 2014, OPIC and USAID will jointly host an African energy and infrastructure investment conference. The conference will bring investors, developers, and companies together with U.S. and African government officials to demonstrate the opportunities for investment and the tools and resources available from the U.S. government and other partners to support investment.

Power Africa will also leverage private sector investments, beginning with more than $9 billion in initial commitments from private sector partners to support the development of more than 8,000 megawatts of new electricity generation in sub-Saharan Africa. Examples of commitments to-date include:

• General Electric commits to help bring online 5,000 megawatts of new, affordable energy through provision of its technologies, expertise and capital in Tanzania and Ghana.
• Heirs Holdings commits to $2.5 billion of investment and financing in energy, generating an additional 2,000 megawatts of electricity capacity over next five years.
• Symbion Power aims to catalyze $1.8 billion in investment to support 1,500 megawatts of new energy projects in Power Africa countries over the next five years.
• Aldwych International commits to developing 400 MW of clean, wind power in Kenya and Tanzania – which will represent the first large-scale wind projects in each of these countries, and an associated investment of $1.1 billion.
• Harith General Partners commits to $70 million in investment for clean, wind energy in Kenya and $500 million across the African power sector via a new fund.
• Husk Power Systems will seek to complete installation of 200 decentralized biomass-based mini power plants in Tanzania – providing affordable lighting for 60,000 households.
• The African Finance Corporation intends to invest $250 million in the power sectors of Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria, catalyzing $1 billion in investment in sub-Saharan Africa energy projects.

Power Africa Will Help Attract Investment in Africa’s Energy Sector

Power Africa directly addresses constraints to investment in order to accelerate progress. Instead of taking years or even decades to create an enabling environment for energy sector investment, Power Africa takes a transaction-centered approach that provides incentives to host governments, the private sector, and donors. These incentives galvanize collaboration, producing near-term results and driving forward systemic reforms that pave the way to future investment. To achieve these ambitions, Power Africa includes:

• An interagency Transactions Solutions Team to provide the catalysts needed to bring power and transmission projects to fruition by leveraging financing, insurance, technical assistance, and grant tools from across the U.S. government and our private sector partners.
• Field-based Transaction Advisors, who have already begun their work in each of the partner countries, to help governments prioritize, coordinate, and expedite the implementation of power projects, while simultaneously building the capacity of existing host government ministries to deliver results.

Power Africa Will Build Capacity for Project Delivery and Energy Sector Reform

Building host-government capacity to develop, approve, finance and ultimately bring power projects on line is critical to the success of the initiative. To support this need, Power Africa will work with host governments to launch or further develop “delivery units” charged with driving progress on specific projects. These delivery units will help increase technical skills and accelerate energy sector regulatory, market structure and enabling environment reforms.

In Tanzania for example, Power Africa will support the “Big Results Now!” program, which is establishing new delivery units within government ministries. In Nigeria, Power Africa will provide staffing support, capacity building and technical assistance to an existing delivery unit. Establishment of a delivery unit in Ghana will be closely coordinated with the MCC’s Compact slated for signature in 2014.

Transparent Natural Resource Management

The recent discoveries of oil and gas in sub-Saharan Africa will play a critical role in defining the region’s prospects for economic growth and stability, as well as contributing to broader near-term global energy security. Yet existing infrastructure in the region is inadequate to ensure that both on- and off-shore resources provide on-shore benefits and can be accessed to meet the region’s electricity generation needs.

Although many countries have legal and regulatory structures in place governing the use of natural resources, these are often inadequate. They fail to comply with international standards of good governance, or do not provide for the transparent and responsible financial management of these resources.

Power Africa will work in collaboration with partner countries to ensure the path forward on oil and gas development maximizes the benefits to the people of Africa, while also ensuring that development proceeds in a timely, financially sound, inclusive, transparent and environmentally sustainable manner.

[MinutemanCO]

I'm sorry, and the money for this program is coming from where again?

[Ryan Ruck]

What are you talking about MMCO?

We've still got checks in the checkbook, so we can't be out of money!


I seriously need to figure out how to swindle some money out of this gravy train before it derails.

[American Patriot]

I'm sorry, and the money for this program is coming from where again?

Its coming from the bloody 1% they are taking from military retirees.

I guess they forgot they just fucked the largest Army in the world, who own guns, are trained to kill and don't give a fuck about Politicians any more.

[Malsua]

300 billion? for what? Exporting islamists and pirates?

[American Patriot]

No.... not at all. It's for exporting "Democrats" to America.... What's left of it.

[Ryan Ruck]

Exporting Dermocrats...






And Presidents.

[American Patriot]

You know, this pisses me off to no end. That bullshit coming out of the mouths of congress yesterday about how THEY can't "sacrifice" any more because they have sacrificed enough and yet the retired military people CAN sacrifice just a LITTLE MORE.... is enough to make me fucking throw up.

You know, I don't give a shit who you are, if you served in the military 20 years or beyond, or you were medically retired like my son was after Iraq - taking their retirement money, even if it's only a few bucks is utter fucking bullshit when you have congress members making:

2009-2012 $174,000 per annum - Congress

SCHEDULE 6--VICE PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF CONGRESS^[2]

Position	Salary
Vice President	$230,700
Delegates to the House of Representatives	$174,000
Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico	$174,000
President pro tempore of the Senate	$193,400
Majority leader and minority leader of the Senate	$193,400
Majority leader and minority leader of the House of Representatives	$193,400
Speaker of the House of Representatives	$223,500

This is the average pay for a US military member, retired - based on ranks for E0-E9. This is a couple of years old so it's probably a bit less than present charts.

Military retirement pay is based upon grade (rank) and years of service:

	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30+
E-9	2287	2402	2615	2734	2966	3089	3400	3531	3662	3792	3923
E-8	1974	2073	2269	2372	2534	2640	2902	3014	3125	3237	3348
E-7	1729	181`5	1991	2081	2235	2328	2593	2693	2793	2892	2992
E-6	1454	1526	1599	1672	1744	1817	1890	1963	2035	2108	2181
E-5	1225	1286	1347	1409	1470	1531	1592	1654	1715	1776	1838
E-4	978	1027	1076	1125	1174	1223	1272	1321	1370	1419	1406
E-3	820	861	902	943	984	1025	1066	1107	1148	1189	1230
E-2	692	726	761	796	830	865	899	934	696	1003	1038
E-1	617	648	679	710	741	771	802	833	864	895	926

I'm a retired E7 with 26+ years of service. I retired from the USAF Reserves with 14 years active duty, 12 years active reserve duty.... And I added time in for before enlistment and up until I "officially retired" (when they released me from Stop Loss in August 2002). According to this chart I will make around $2593 before taxes. Yes they tax it.

That comes to $31116 a year.

Now... the truth is, I will likely only get about 55% of that to begin with. (There's a set of charts and rules that go along for me, because I retired as an active reservist rather than active duty).

Essentially it's my last pay grade (e7 over 25yrs) and some calculation of that - roughly 55% of my last base pay. It comes to about $17113.80.

And I PAY out of that toward my medical, if I want medical. (Tricare).

Think any of you can live on 17K a year? Isn't 19K a year roughly "poverty level" now?

This is the biggest bunch of bullshit I've ever seen out of this government.

[American Patriot]

oh here's one more:

In any case, the longer an individual serves, the higher the multiplier and the higher the retirement pay. For example:

Years of Service	10	15	20	21	22	23	24	25	30	35	40	41
Final Pay	25%	37.5%	50%	52.5%	55%	57.5%	60%	62.5%	75%	80%	100%	102.5%
High-36	25%	37.5%	50%	52.5%	55%	57.5%	60%	62.5%	75%	80%	100%	102.5%
REDUX*	n/a	n/a	40%	43.5%	47%	50.5%	54%	57.5%	75%	80%	100%	102.5%

*The multiplier does not apply to the REDUX retirement plan at under 20 years of service since REDUX is only an active duty retirement plan.

Looks like 65% or so of my last basepay is what I will get...