Saudi Arabia has pledged to chip in $10 billion in funds to South Africa’s ailing power sector, according to futures tracker and energy portal Oil Price.
The funding is said to be earmarked for refineries, petrochemicals processing and renewable energy projects.
It represents a tenth of an earlier $100 billion that was requested from the international investment community to enable upgrades to the country’s “underfunded energy sector”, Oil Price writes.
It added that Saudi’s “motivations for investing in South Africa’s power sector are largely in line with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which seeks to diversify away from oil dependence and towards foreign economies”.
It’s furthermore emphasised that despite “power sector woes that have diminished its GDP, South Africa remains Africa’s second-largest economy, representing new opportunities for the kingdom”.
