Has enough been allocated to make it happen sooner rather than late center operationally, is the emphasis on National Governments or state governments or both and local . If you find a National Government is unwilling to be as transparent as we want them to be, do we look to bypass and go to a state . Obviously in the u. S. Its the states and local government that carry the heavy burden of providing electricity. Is that model being replicated in africa . In terms of the electrification, obviously we have stateoftheart election the fix indication here and i have visited virtually every electricity plant in my state over the yeares most but not all they obviously have many environmental safeguards, scrubbers to make sure what comes another the chimney does not lead to temperatures as healthwise because of pollution. Are those kinds of environmental sustainable best practices being incorporated in what we do . Seems to me theres so much on the shelf capability and knowledge that it would be a shame if that was lost. If you could spend a moment on that as well. How are and where are the african power leaders especially the equivalent throw nco corps, the people that run the generators. Where do theyd get their education . Are they partner are with Electricity Companies here or is it something that theyre picking up in college, Junior College . Who is trained those who will run the plants so they will be run safely and effectively, and finally to be oned the Grid Initiative under power africa is intended to facilitate investment in smallscale energy solutions, do you think such projects do more african entrepreneurs to take a greater interest in creating means of supplying energy to underprovided areas in africa. If you would speak to that i appreciate it. Thank you for your question. Mr. Chairman, and thank you for your leadership on this entire topic, and introducing the legislation. So, each country is in a different place but we have seen a number of countries really focus on increasing electrification, and you see this, for example, as witnessed in the ncc compacts in tan tanzania and ghana. And they realize lack of electricity i holding them back. There are a lot of countries realizing how important this is to their growth to their Healthcare System to their education system, and are locking to really do a lot more in this area. There are gaps and thats part of the concept behind power africa, is to identify what the gaps are and work with the government and private sector investors to try to solve them. We have seen cases where private sector investors from the United States and elsewhere have tried to do deals and then run into a load block. Thats where the transaction advisers step in and say, how do we solve senate. On the gap issue, is that something you could summarize and provide to the subcommittee so we get a sense of what youre truly encountering . Yes, we can. Then we can try to be helpful with the governments. We can do that. In terms of local and national governance, obviously there are often National Policies that set the Energy Policy for an entire country, but there are a number of local aspects that also come into play, and we work with all of them in the same roadblock approach to figure out what are the challenges and how do we deal with that . The question of environmental and social safeguards is very important and youre absolutely right. We dont need to reinvent the wheel. We need to make sure that we use stateoftheart and so all the projects, for instance if theres a component that involves the development banks, each bank has their own policy for checking these things and working with the governments and making sure that the project fits those standards and dont introduce some really poor practices. In terms of the education and training, there are local institutions that offer in some countries training, in other cases people have education from the United States or europe, but it is an area where there are shortfalls. Actually a Longstanding Partnership that usaid funchess involves a another of u. S. Utilities and another one involving u. S. Regulators and they work in combination with people in the individual countries for this very reason so they can have very technical interaction from one utility technical person to another, and to try to increase that skill level, because there are definitely gaps, and we need to keep working on that. If i could, those tack tuck cal people come here to learn or do our people get deploy thread . Both. Depending on the circumstances. How large of an operation is that . Its a modest sized, very economical system where each year we get requests from different country and its restricted to africa but africa is a big participant. And we match them up with different utilities. Dont off the topmy head but probably a utility in new jersey or california or whatever, but they match up match them up with utilities that have the expertise they need. So, then they have these exchanges and interactions. For the record could you provide the committee a sense of what that is . I can. And then lastly, before i turn to my colleague, absolutely beyond the grid, we having local organizations and entrepreneurs seeing the Business Opportunities is part of the objective, and thats sometimes where the some of the credit guarantees usaid or others can help them deal with the risk and introduce them to interesting Business Opportunities where they know very well because of these remote areas they might know better than a large company. Im sure my colleagues have things to add on some of these points. Chairman smith, would add a couple of points of i may. First of all, we all, i think, acknowledge the difficulty of providing broad answers because of the very great diversity of the different circumstances in different african countries and indeed rural versus urban settings, but within that with that danger, ill attempt to respond. In regard to the question about Cutting Edge Development of the power systems, the grid centralized systems, one of the areas we felt is very, very important and that a number of our agencies have work on from different vantage points, disperspectives of our missions, is the business of utilization of associated gas from Oil Development projects. The historical experience of the flaring of natural gas is understandable when infrastructure is lacking, but when infrastructure manages to be lacking then for protracted periods of time into decade, thats really a critical lost opportunity. So one of the things hey with been focusing on in our policy dialogues with african countries and one thing were focusing on at the level of identification of mutual interests between u. S. Companies and opportunities in certain african countries is this area of gas capture for Power Generation. Together with the trade and Development Agency this summer, the department of energy organized a reverse trade mission that took leaders from a couple different african countries to the houston, texas, area, for a series of meetings with Companies Involved in Gas Development. So we think theres an area for potential opportunity there. In regard to the beyond the Grid Initiative, and some of the potential for growth with african entrepreneurs, from the depth of energy perspective, one aspect we have been focusing on is the importance of proper performance of products in the marketplace. So, it is, of course, easy to spoil the market when you have substandard products, be they for offgrid or for solar lanterns, another area where department of energy has worked, and so we are working with our colleagues at aid in particular to look at this question of how to make sure that offgrid Lighting Systems and Solar Systems and hybrid systems that are a mix of renewables and either diesel or natural gas, these are they actually perform in way that is advertised, so that then you see a Healthy Development of that entrepreneurial opportunity Going Forward. Lastly, on the issue of the training, i would say from our perspective, this is an area that is both of huge interest to u. S. Companies, but its also in terms of gaps, lots of, shall we say, head roomopportunity for growth. Im sure that members of the committee have had the experience, as i and my colleagues have, for example, as a comparison, of traveling throughout the gulf region, and when one is in the kingdom of saudi arabia or unite arab emirates or kuwait or many other countries where there have been historical very longlasting education and training and company relationships, what that translates into is not only high Quality Energy development, it also translates into huge opportunity for u. S. Companies, because in many cases, our counterparts are familiar with u. S. Standards, u. S. Approaches, u. S. Vendors. So, huge opportunity for growth there in anar that doe is looking to try to develop some ideas on. Thank you. May i make a few points . Yes. Five points ill chime in here on that relate to the gaps and challenges. The first is in a sense i think a common problem in the throughout the subconstant innocent is related to the financial position of the utilities. So, since one of the challenges is how to strengthen the regulatory environment, the pricing environment, and move toward more commercial utilities . Because then the investors will then know they have a credible offtaker for the power that theyre generating. Clearly we have done a lot of work to power africa on power purchase agreements, developing standardized approaches, opec has been very active in this area, and thats very important. At the same time, though, you need to have solvent Viable Energy system in order to have a longterm investment that is necessary to develop the sector. Second is i think mr. Ichord roz s you have different ministrieses, like in nigeria, and you have to work to help them be a catalyst for them, at least to try to do better planning so you can ensure that the oil and gas that is being developed in the country is going to be available to meet the needs of the country. Ghana is a very interesting example where they want to develop a lot of capacity and yet the oil and Gas Development has been slow in coming. The point about urban and subnational is a very important point in africa and other regions. The urbanization process is creating centers of buildings and industry, and the mayors and the subnational leaders of those entities are becoming more and more important as this process goes, and as you know, we have not talked about urbanizeddation but its still at embryonic stage at subsaharan africa, and by 2030 only going to have 54 urban. So theres a lot but its rapidly growing, and that working with the cities and the urban areas is a very important area, particularly in areas like energy efficiency. Fourth area is the Entrepreneurial Development and local institutions. Here i think in many cases its very important to work with the local Business Community, which we are, and also to focus on how can we develop more capacity and recep different in the local receptivity in the local Banking System so they can helped for some of the projects, so it isnt just dependent on International Capital coming in, because you know that much of the International Capital, particularly private and venture capital, sees huge risk and very risk avers in terms of coming into these areas. So the local Banking Sector becomes very important. And we have seen in nigeria and other countries the local Banking System can, if developed, play a key role. And then finally issue would say that there are a lot of actors playing in this field. I think its very important, and we are, of course, working very closely with the world back and African Development bank and other donors to try to have a coordinated approach that addresses the range of gaps, institutionally and otherwise, and that were trying to leverage our money effectively in that process. Thank you very much. Miss bass. Again, thank you all for your testimony. As i said in my opening statement, im a big supporter of power africa, but i want to raise a few issues that are raised by others with concern about power africa and the implementation. So, i believe, mr. Elkin you were mentioning african entrepreneurs. So i wanted to know to the extent that the African Diaspora here in the United States was getting involved or what type of outreach are are you doing . So, a couple questions. The African Diaspora specifically and also just Small Businesses. I constantly encounter Small Business people who want to figure out how to be connected and just cant quite make the connection. You mentioned the reverse trade mission and you mentioned to houston. There are any others planned . Of course im going to make a pitch for Southern California because it seems like reverse trade missions dont quite make it to the west, or maybe im just not aware of them. So that another issue. And then i want to ask you about the development of the infrastructure on the continent. Why dont i start with those couple questions. Thank you for your questions. Ill start about im sure my colleague will add in. We agree that we need to not only start but continue with a lot of outreach to reach all different sectored of interested people. Small u. S. Businesses, diaspora, large u. S. Businesses, and so forth. So, we are were making progress but a we have more to do. There are some cases already where there have been deas suprainterest. I diaspora interest. I understand theres for instance in ethopian American Business that is going to be manufacturing smart meters for ethiopias electricity company, and i hope there will be additional successes in the days ahead, and as you elude allude to, many members of the diaspora know very well the Business Opportunities and they have through the own hard work accumulated capital, and so their ideally suited to participate in different aspects of this. And in terms of being connected, we have created a onestopshop on the usaid web site. Theres a pain but in theres page but somebody can send an email, power africa usaid. Gov and we use that onestopshop to reach out to all intent involved, and make the connections because we dont have we have the view that people shouldnt have to hunt all over the u. S. Government to figure out who to talk to. So that why we created this onestopshop. Well direct them and save them the trouble. Shouldnt be that difficult for american taxpayers. I really would like to help you with that as well. So maybe reaching out to members of Congress Others might want to be involved. African diaspora as well as africanamerican die as practice who are diaspora who are very about in participating. Thank you, well take you up on that. Please do. Another issue that has come up came up actually when the bill was being heard here in committee, and that is to the extent that, as we are in power africa, developing supporting the development of the infrastructure on the continent to what extent is it getting into communities . So theres some concern from some people that most of the infrastructure is going to be built in cities to help businesses, which is wonderful, but considering that people in the rural areas or even right in the city, in neighborhoods, do not have electricity, what always horrified me was the idea of women giving child birth using the light on their cell phone to deliver a baby. So, im wondering about that. Let me start. I clearly the issues related to me models for Rural Electrification is changing a lot. Its really a revolution that is occurring in which the drop in prices for Solar Systems, the advances in telecommunications and cell phones, i just came back from bangladesh. Some of the models and commercial approaches being taken i think are going to be extremely important for africa, because you have such one large rural population without access, you have small relatively small loads, the economics of extending the grid by utilities that dont have the money to do it, or dont necessarily have the same kind of commitment to extend the systems because in many cases theyre struggling to just meet urban requirements. In urban issue was referring to in neighborhoods. Urban communities. I think the issues related to decentralized approaches do are relevant to some of the urban areas as well as the rural areas and i think it was also your question about the entrepreneurial opportunities to work with u. S. Companies who are at the leading edge of these technologies. Were working with a California Company that has developed a nano grid approach in bang la and thats the bangladesh and thats the kind of innovation i see going on in the u. S. Witch the u. S. Companies that we can begin to try to focus on, to take a closer look at africa and the Market Opportunities there. So youre telling me its a part of the initiative. Well, think that what i say were excited about beyond the grid because in a sense were in the early stages, but a lot of companies have come up and expressed interest in involvement,