YOKOHAMA - On August 28, the US Government (USG) and the Government of Japan (GOJ) signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) to expand U.S.-Japan energy cooperation in sub-Saharan Africa through the Japan-United States Strategic Energy Partnership (JUSEP) and renew each country’s commitment to reducing energy poverty and increasing access to sustainable energy in Africa.  The signing took place at the Seventh International Conference on African Development (TICAD 7) and was signed by Power Africa Coordinator Andrew Herscowitz and Ambassador Masahiko Kiya, Deputy Director-General of African Affairs Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.

The MOC builds on over three years of successful cooperation between USG and GOJ through a previous MOC signed in August 2016 to support Power Africa, a U.S. Government-led effort to double access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa, which the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) coordinates. The MOC will leverage collective energy investments in clean energy solutions, geothermal, energy efficiency, and support cross-border energy trade and regional power pools. The renewed partnership will advance efforts under the Power Africa 2.0 strategy, that USAID Administrator Mark Green announced in 2018, to make gains in the areas of distribution and transmission. GOJ, USAID and the broader Power Africa network will coordinate efforts to increase electrical transmission infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa.

Power Africa, the U.S. government-led partnership coordinated by USAID to double electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa, has two distinct goals: 1) to increase new generation capacity by 30,000 megawatts, and 2) to help create 60 million new electricity connections by 2030.