Background
Africa’s green technology sectors are already generating jobs and building new capabilities for firms across the value chain. Across e-mobility and energy, young Africans are already building and leading the companies driving green technology adoption, with youth making up an estimated 81 per cent of Kenya's e-mobility workforce and 82 per cent of Nigeria's solar mini-grid workforce.
Yet the same structural constraints recur across all two sectors: up to 85 per cent of Nigeria’s solar mini-grid components are imported; Kenya’s e-mobility sector has attracted only USD 50 million against an estimated financing need of up to USD 8.9 billion; and across all two countries, policy, financing, and skills systems have not adapted to the realities of the youth-led firms that make up the majority of each sector’s workforce.
This points to a broader strategic gap. Current debates on Africa’s green industrialisation focus heavily on upstream extraction and midstream processing, but underplay the role of local innovation ecosystems in sectors where green technologies are actually being deployed, such as renewable energy and e-mobility. Without stronger support for local innovation, technology adaptation and firm growth in these sectors, African countries risk exporting raw materials while importing the higher-value technologies needed for their own transformation.
The Event
This side event launches two APRI-Mastercard Foundation country reports on Nigeria’s solar mini-grid sector and Kenya’s e-mobility ecosystem technology startups. It convenes policymakers, financiers, and industry leaders to identify practical reforms in financing, technology transfer, skills development, and policy coordination so that green technology deployment contributes more directly to industrial competitiveness and youth employment.
