The African Legal Support Facility (ALSF) recognises that broad, inclusive and affordable access to reliable energy is the sine qua non of economic development and, as a consequence, facilitating the development of energy infrastructure is a priority for the Facility.
The ALSF is a multilateral organisation dedicated to empowering African governments and public utilities. The Facility strives to level the playing field by removing asymmetric technical capacities during negotiations of complex commercial contracts related to large-scale and impactful infrastructure projects.
In addition to providing transactional support to African governments in the negotiation of energy projects, the ALSF develops model agreements and capacity-building programmes to assist countries in unlocking Africa’s massive energy potential.
The ALSF’s service offering to the continent’s energy sector comprises advisory services, capacity-building initiatives and knowledge management.
“ To date, the ALSF has trained more than 6,000 African experts in commercial legal issues from more than 45 African states. “
Advisory services
The Facility provides advisory support to African Governments from the procurement phase to the financial close of energy sector projects. ALSF’s assistance is aimed at removing the imbalance between the governments/public utilities and the private sectors to achieve sustainable and fair agreements that will produce bankable and well-structured energy projects.
In the energy sector alone, the ALSF is currently advising African governments on more than 40 projects and supporting several governments and public utilities to (a) structure and negotiate their first utility-scale IPP project, (b) add new generation technology to their energy mix and (c) navigate the peculiar considerations of cross-border power projects.
The Facility is also proud to support innovative and cutting-edge technologies such as green hydrogen and green ammonia, that will push the continent towards the forefront of the global energy transition.
The ALSF is dedicated to helping governments and utilities identify and focus on the right projects for their sector structure and energy mix and assists in:
- The early identification of bankability issues and potential solutions;
- The establishment of procurement strategies that yield competitive pricing and adequate technology proposals; and
Building the capacity
The ALSF provides assistance to develop legal capacities through its capacity-building model, which focuses on a real transfer of knowledge and skills development by means of workshops, conferences, seminars and transaction-based training for government officials, utility managers and local lawyers.
The ALSF also provides general sectoral capacity building through the ALSF Academy – a capacity-building portal that provides e-learning courses and related materials including comprehensive course handbooks, model agreements, practice guides and sector publications.
The interactive portal currently runs two courses on the energy sector: Power – Level 1, an introductory course to power transactions on the continent; and Power – Level 2, an intermediate course that offers an in-depth analysis of power project procurement, power purchase agreement, financing of power projects and energy planning. A third course, Power – Level 3 is under development.
To date, the Facility has trained more than 6,000 African experts in commercial legal issues from more than 45 African states.
Knowledge management
Energy sector toolkits: Through the development of comprehensive and country-specific energy sector toolkits, the ALSF works with African governments in setting market standards and best practices.
Comprising procurement guidelines, tender documents, model agreements and user-friendly guide notes, the toolkits are designed to ease knowledge retention by governments and public utilities. Most of the ALSF’s advisory projects include the drafting of an energy sector toolkit in consultation with government and market stakeholders to facilitate future negotiations.
Energy handbooks: The effective negotiation of complex commercial contracts represents a substantial obstacle for many African governments.
In all negotiations, the concerned parties must always endeavour to achieve a balance between promoting their interests, while identifying mutually beneficial opportunities. This process can often be challenging to master. In response to this need and in collaboration with USAID, Power Africa and the US CLDP, the ALSF has developed a series of manuals that guide policy and decision-makers through the complex process of procuring, negotiating and financing power-related projects.
The “Understanding…” series of handbooks cover, power purchase agreements, power project procurement, power project financing, power transmission financing and energy storage.
The Lightbulb journal: The ALSF publishes a professional journal that seeks to inspire conversations about energy project development in Africa. The journal seeks to engage government officials, state-owned utilities and the government on the factors that prevent or help to create enabling environments for efficiently negotiating and successfully commissioning energy projects. ESI
