Open Africa Power 2025: The Italian Module and the Top 10 Cohort

In November 2025, I was one of the ten Top Performers of Open Africa Power (OAP) 2025 selected for the programme's Italian Module. Open Africa Power is run by the Enel Foundation in collaboration with Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), and the module closed with an award and closing ceremony at the UNDP Rome Centre. The Enel Foundation produced the short film below about the module and our cohort.

The cohort

The ten Top Performers of Open Africa Power 2025 were:

• Murendeni Makhado
• Immanuel N. Jiya
• Eng. Valentino Michira
• Romeo Tweneboah Koduah
• Sheila Sergon
• Primrose Vurayai
• Ibrahim Sa'id
• Kehinde Adeyeye
• Amal Nasr
• Halarou Hamza Abarchi

We came from different countries and professional backgrounds across the African energy sector, and the module was designed for us to learn as a group: the site visits, discussions and travel were shared, and much of the value came from comparing what we saw in Italy with conditions in our own countries.

The Italian Module

Over one week the module took us across four Italian regions: Lombardy, Tuscany, Abruzzo and Lazio. The programme combined technical visits to energy research and generation sites, including geothermal and conventional power plants, with discussions on how technology, regulation and policy together shape the energy transition. The aim, as the Enel Foundation put it, was for participants to see first-hand how innovation and policy can shape a just and sustainable energy future.

The module concluded at the UNDP Rome Centre with the award and closing ceremony for the cohort.

What the cohort took from it

The film records the cohort's reflections at the end of the week. A common thread was confidence: the discussions and site visits gave each of us a clearer sense of the role we can play when we return home. The cohort's message to future participants was also simple: opportunities exist, and the task is to be prepared to recognise them and act on them.

For my own part, I have written a separate account of the programme, covering the facilities we visited and what I took from the week.

Acknowledgements

I thank the Enel Foundation and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) for running Open Africa Power, the UNDP Rome Centre for hosting the award and closing ceremony, and my nine fellow Top Performers for a week of shared learning.

Video: Enel Foundation.