The African Energy Commission (AFREC) hosted a validation workshop with senior national statisticians and various key stakeholders from Algeria, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Congo, Gabon, Kenya Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe to validate and provide input into countries Diagnostic report and Action Plan, to establish and/or improve their National Energy Information System (NEIS).

The validation workshop will enable the selected members States to analyse and validate the diagnostic report and action plan of their countries. The report and plan have been developed in the last eight months based on stakeholder interviews and supported by continual analysis of data and documentation shared by country focal points, with technical and financial support from AFREC.

In his opening remark, Mr. Rashid Ali Abdallah, Executive Director of AFREC stated that AFREC’s support programme on NEIS will increase the quality of the energy statistic processes which are significant indicators for developing energy policies, designing good strategies for investment, providing insights necessary for decision making at national level and finally to strengthen capacities of African countries energy experts in the methodology and tools for collecting and managing energy data.

The programme is aimed at building capacity of the aforementioned Member states to build and strengthen their NEIS, improve systems aimed at collecting and validating energy statistics, harmonizing and streamlining energy statistics processes across Member States and reinforcing the adoption of AFREC’s methodology on energy statistic and questionnaires.

The validated diagnostic reports and action plans for each country will serve as important execution tools for guiding the implementation of concrete recommendations to create or improve countries National Energy Information System (NEIS) of which ultimately will contribute to better energy planning.