AN international energy organisation, EnergyNet, has won the second Queen Elizabeth II Award for Enterprise in the category of International Trade, the highest honour for United Kingdom commercial businesses. The award was made on the advice of United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May, for EnergyNet’s ‘Outstanding Short Term Growth and Social Responsibility Agenda’ across Africa.
As the organisation behind the popular Africa Energy Forum, EnergyNet has been organising investment forums in the emerging markets for the last quarter of a century in Africa, Europe, North America, China and Latin America, working to promote the world’s most credible investors in rapidly-changing and fast-growing economies.
This award also recognises EnergyNet’s outstanding short-term growth within a three-year period, as well as its social responsibility efforts in Africa and the £200,000 invested through the organisation’s ‘Not Just Talking Fund’ into energy-related projects to aid the lives of Africans.
The Managing Director of EnergyNet, Simon Gosling, in his response, said: “It was incredible to be recognised by the Prime Minister and Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2014, but to also receive this award for a second time [by a different PM] this year is an extraordinary feat for us, and one which I hope reflects the seriousness with which EnergyNet team take our responsibilities to serve the world’s leading companies and the most exciting growing economies across the world.”
Following an initial investment into a solar off-grid project for a primary school in South Africa in 2016, EnergyNet’s second project investment will be a micro-grid in Sierra Leone. The investment will be made in partnership with Solektra International, the company co-founded by Senegalese United States Hip Hop superstar, Akon, Samba Bathily and Thione Niang. EnergyNet and Solektra are working with the Barefoot Woman Solar Engineer Association of Sierra Leone (BWSEASL) to appoint a female entrepreneur to take ownership of the project within the local community.
In addition to supporting off-grid projects on the ground in Africa, EnergyNet founded the Student Engagement Initiative (ESEI) three years’ ago, flying a selection of best-in-class African law, finance and engineering students to meet sector leaders and explore future employment opportunities at conferences throughout the year.
The programme has also sponsored 63 African students to date, working closely with African universities and partners Aggreko and Norton Rose Fulbright to provide onsite training workshops and meeting opportunities with African Ministers of Energy.