In the course of Africa Europe Week, the Africa Europe Award was given for the first time this year. The initiative for the award comes from the consultancy company Maleki Corporate Group , which gave the prize in conjunction with the Frankfurt Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the World Bank Group. The company MAN Energy Solutions, which was called MAN Diesel & Turbo until the middle of last year, received the prize for its commitment to German-African economic relationships and for supporting a sustainable, efficient, decentralized electricity supply system on the African continent.

In his speech at the award ceremony, Dr. Stefan Liebing, CEO of the investment and consultancy company Conjuncta and chairman of the German-African Business Association, emphasized the fact that MAN Energy Solutions has already been working for 50 years on power plant projects in over 30 African states and has installed over 3.2 gigawatts of energy output there. A particular highlight, Liebing said, is the gas-fired power station Maria Gleta in Cotonou in Benin, with which MAN Energy Solutions will more than double the country’s electricity generation capacity so that Benin will no longer be dependent on energy imports.