CFAs: Open Africa Power Programme 2025

This year the programme will engage up to 80 African students, with at least 50% women, and almost 500 alumni in a series of professional development and leadership activities provided in partnership with top academic institutions in Italy and Africa.

Initiated by Enel Foundation in 2018 and co-managed with SEforALL from the 2022 edition, Open Africa Power is designed to equip a new generation of energy leaders with a holistic knowhow of the electricity sector to leave their mark, whether in public or private sector towards a clean energy future for Africa.

Program Structure

• The Open Africa Power Program will consist of local and international experts both from academia and industry and comprise the following modules:
  • Digital African Module: State of the Art
    • This 24-hour module will occur between early June and mid July 2025. It will take place in digital form only. The module, delivered in collaboration with the UCT and African School of Regulation, will explore the fundamentals of the global electricity sector through the lenses of sustainable development goals with specific sessions dedicated to the nexus between energy and gender balance. It will cover the following areas:
      • Networks technology, regulation, economics
      • Renewables technology, regulation, economics
      • ICT digitalization of the electricity industry
    • Following the African Module, participants will be asked to take a final assignment in the form of an online multiple-choice test (“Assignment”).
  •  External Partner Online Course
    • This course will enable the learners to gain a comprehensive vision on how to design appropriate policy and regulatory framework needed to ensure sustainable energy for all. The online course on Energy Sector for Energy Transition, delivered by an accredited external partner, will start in early June and will end around mid-October 2025.
    • Participants are required to complete a Country Project (individually or as a group).
    • At the end of the course, the participants can earn a Certificate of Attendance, a Certificate of Completion or a Certificate of Excellence, depending on their performance and engagement throughout the course.
  • Italian Module: New Frontiers
    • The Italian Module comprises two separate learning moments:
      • A full residential week that will take place in Italy in the second half of 2025. Participants will have direct experience of the new frontiers of the electricity sector, through a number of site visits to innovative power plants, experimental and training labs as well as control rooms. They will be also called to actively interact with prestigious academic partners and research representatives, meet with government, business, and non-profit leaders, engaging in dialogues around the clean energy future of the African Continent.
      • An eight-weeks online course from mid-October to early December 2025 where Italian academic partners (Politecnico di Torino, Politecnico di Milano, SDA Bocconi) will deliver lectures on the new frontiers of crucial topics such as Additive Manufacturing, ICT applied to Networks’ Management, Economic and Environmental Impact Accounting, Renewables potential and climate change, Decision-making under uncertainty and the key drivers of the energy transition.
  • Give Back Module
    • Upon completion of the Italian module, Enel Foundation could decide to involve the cohort of alumni in teaching activities and events related to its education initiatives in Africa and beyond.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible, candidates must meet the following criteria:
  • Be between the ages of 24 and 35 by April 14th, 2025.
  • Be a citizen of an African country.
  • Currently resident in an African country or planning to relocate in Africa within the end of 2025.
  • Be eligible to travel to Italy. All candidates are invited to check well in advance the  procedure applicable to their specific cases.
  • Having graduated by April 16th, 2025, from a PhD, MBA or Master’s degree (MSc, LLM, MPP, etc.) degree. At least one degree (PhD, MBA, Master’s, Bachelor’s) must be from an African University.
  • Have competences and a demonstrated interest to pursue a career – in private or public sector – in the electricity space at large.
  • Be fully proficient in English (CEFR C1 level) and be able to demonstrate this via an official language certificate or completion of at least one degree completely taught in English.
  • Willingness to promote gender equality and women´s empowerment within and beyond the programme.
• Recognizing that women play a critical role in the energy sector, but they are often left out of decision-making and have restricted access to energy education, employment opportunities and finance, their participation in the OAP is highly encouraged. Enel Foundation and SEforALL will ensure that 50% of the participants are women.

Ineligibility Criteria

• Current undergraduate students, people only in possess of a Bachelor’s degree or people who are currently enrolled in a Master’s degree (i.e. graduate students) are not eligible for this program.

For more information, visit Enel Foundation.