Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 30 June 2025
The African Legal Support Facility (ALSF) has reaffirmed its commitment to accelerating energy access and climate resilience across the Sahel through its support for the development of a Common Independent Power Producer (IPP) Protocol for countries participating in the African Development Bank’s Desert to Power (DtP) initiative.
At a high-level ministerial meeting held on 30 June 2025 in Ouagadougou, energy ministers and senior representatives from Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Djibouti convened to assess progress under the DtP initiative and endorse strategic tools aimed at scaling up private sector participation in renewable energy infrastructure across the region.
A key outcome of the meeting was the endorsement of the Common IPP Protocol - an instrument designed to streamline the procurement of utility-scale solar projects, reduce transaction costs, and improve the bankability of energy investments in DtP countries.
This milestone builds on a two-year consultative process initiated at the third Ministerial Meeting in 2022 at Nouakchott, during which DtP countries called for facilitative frameworks to catalyse private investment. The ALSF responded by providing technical and legal assistance through the review of national frameworks and designing standardised contracting documents based on shared procurement principles. This work was made possible with co-funding from the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Trust Fund (KOAFEC), whose support enabled the ALSF to promote best practices in project structuring, risk allocation, and negotiation - ultimately enhancing the investment-readiness of DtP projects.
In their joint declaration, the ministers expressed their appreciation to the ALSF for its instrumental role in developing the protocol and underscored the importance of ensuring synergies with other regional energy initiatives.
The ALSF remains a dedicated partner to African governments in structuring transformative energy projects, fostering public-private partnerships, and building legal capacity for sustainable development.
Légende-ALSF©2019
About the ALSF
Established by the African Development Bank in 2008, the ALSF assists African governments in negotiating complex commercial transactions, providing legal and technical assistance and developing capacity building tools in the key sectors of infrastructure and public-private partnerships, energy, natural resources and extractive industries, as well as on sovereign debt and creditor disputes.
Contact us
Eve Ehoura, Communication Officer : e.ehoura@afdb.org
ALSF Website : https://www.alsf.int
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