Exciting Fully Virtual Fellowship: Apply now for the ETA Fellows Programme for African energy professionals

Ednah Carrick June 13, 2026

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Closing Date: 30 June 2026

Exciting Fully Virtual Fellowship: Apply now for the ETA Fellows Programme for African energy professionals

Africa’s energy transition will not be decided by solar panels, transmission lines, or climate finance alone. It will be decided by people. The analysts who can interrogate evidence. The communicators who can shape public understanding.

The professionals who can sit across from ministers, regulators, investors, and development partners and influence decisions that affect millions. Yet across Africa, there are talented professionals working in government, finance, journalism, civil society, research, and consulting who rarely have access to the kind of environment that develops those capabilities.

That is why Energy Transition Africa created the ETA Fellows Programme.

Applications are now open for Cohort Zero, the founding cohort of Energy Transition Africa’s Fellowship Programme.

Overview

The ETA Fellows Programme is a production based professional formation programme for African energy professionals building the analytical authority, communication capability, and institutional intelligence to shape Africa’s energy transition from the inside

Not because Africans lack intelligence or commitment. Because the systems that produce analytically credible, institutionally confident African professionals in the energy space do not yet exist at scale. Governments negotiate financing agreements without sufficient internal analytical capability. Regulators oversee reforms using frameworks built for different power systems. Civil society actors possess moral legitimacy but lack the analytical infrastructure to challenge financial structures on equal analytical terms.

The consequence is not merely poor communication. It is weak institutional leverage at precisely the moment when the decisions being made will shape Africa’s energy future for the next fifty years.The ETA Fellows Programme exists because that problem has an institutional solution.

This is not a training programme.

It is an eleven-week professional formation experience for analytically minded African professionals who want to strengthen their ability to think, write, communicate, and influence.

Fellows will:

Engage real energy transition challenges
Learn directly from experienced practitioners across Africa
Produce publishable analytical work
Join a small cohort of peers from across the continent
Become members of the College of ETA Fellows

Energy Transition Africa is seeking professionals working across:

Government and public policy
Energy regulation and governance
Development finance and investment
Journalism and strategic communications
Civil society and NGOs
Consultancy and advisory services
Research and academia

Applicants must:

Be citizens of, or currently working within, an African country
Have 3–8 years of professional experience
Be willing to commit to the programme’s workload and production requirements
Be prepared to participate in peer review and collaborative learning processes

You are ready if:

You have 3–8 years of professional experience working in or adjacent to Africa’s energy transition in government, civil society, journalism, finance, research, or advocacy.
You are already producing analytical work in some form: policy documents, proposals, research papers, articles, or journalism. The programme does not introduce you to writing; it accelerates existing capabilities.
You are at the professional inflexion point where a capability investment compounds most significantly, early enough to shape the next decade of your career, yet experienced enough to grasp transition complexity.
You want to produce something that matters, a published argument that changes how someone in a ministry, a DFI, or a newsroom thinks about a critical transition question.

You are not ready if:

You cannot commit five to seven hours per week for the eleven-week duration.
You are primarily looking for a credential or attendance certificate rather than a genuine, intensive capability-development experience.

Selection Criteria

The selection process is designed to identify professionals with strong potential for analytical growth and leadership. Applicants will be assessed based on: