As Africa is poised to become a global leader in the transition to a green economy, with a potential for 3.3 million green jobs by 2030, Dr. Mao Amis, co-founder and executive director of the African Center for Green Economy, highlighted the key sectors driving this growth.

“Africa is one of the very few places globally that hold the opportunity to enable the world to transition into a much more greener economy,” Dr. Amis told Sputnik Africa. “Africa’s natural resources are relatively intact. Africa has contributed traditionally lesser to global warming.”

According to him, renewable energy, particularly solar and wind power, is a key driver of green job creation. He also stressed the potential of the agricultural sector to transform the continent, highlighting the need for innovative approaches to promote green growth.

For his part, Dr. Paul Okwi, Senior Program Specialist at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Nairobi, Kenya, highlighted the role of education and training in taking advantage of the so-called green economy boom in Africa. He also believes that public-private sector cooperation is highly needed for Africa to benefit from the green economy.

“The only way that we can get greater benefits is through the partnership between the government and the private sector,” he told Sputnik Africa. “So by allowing that collaboration between government and private sector, we in Africa should be able to harness our renewable energy potentials significantly and create jobs, improve our energy access, and contribute to the global efforts to climate change challenges.”

Dr. Amis emphasized the importance of harnessing the potential of Africa’s young population and fostering collaboration to achieve sustainable growth. Addressing the challenge of attracting investment, Dr. Amis acknowledged the increasing interest in investing in Africa, citing examples like Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya, which have attracted significant investments in recent years.

“The most important for us in Africa is to see how we can adapt, how we can identify unique opportunities and not wait to be told the opportunities that we have. So whatever has been transferred, for example, needs to be modified. We should be able to produce… We shouldn’t be waiting to be buying all this from the West,” Dr. Okwi contributed.

Talking about collaboration within BRICS, Dr. Amis called the bloc the kind of alliance “that the continent requires.” He believes these partnerships are important in the context of facilitating technology transfer and achieving sustainable development goals.