Reimagining utility reform in a post-aid Africa: Key insights from the 2025 Utility Roundtable

The 2025 Utility Roundtable highlighted the need for African power utilities to move beyond dependency on foreign aid by adopting new financing strategies, addressing structural inefficiencies like commercial losses, and strategically integrating renewable energy into fragile grids through regional collaboration and private sector engagement.

• Sub-Saharan African countries face severe financial constraints, with median total public debt as a share of GDP increasing from 30.6% in 2011 to 62.8% in 2022, while foreign aid from the US, EU, and UK is declining. Furthermore, Africa receives only 3% of global energy investments despite containing 20% of the world's population, with over 45% of those investments concentrated in North and South Africa.
• Utilities in Sub-Saharan Africa are hindered by structural barriers such as non-cost reflective tariffs, low demand, and high technical and commercial losses. To combat commercial losses, network analyses in Ghana and Sierra Leone indicate that utilities should implement integrated approaches combining staff training, smart metering, and improved energy accounting systems.
• Scaling renewable energy in the region requires strategic system-wide planning to avoid oversupply and curtailment. Insights from Kenya's experience suggest diversifying portfolios with dispatchable sources like gas and hydropower, prioritizing pricing policies that protect consumers, and developing balancing markets to maintain system equilibrium.

APA

Mukhaya, B., & Odarno, L. (2025). Reimagining utility reform in a post-aid Africa: Key insights from the 2025 Utility Roundtable. Clean Air Task Force. https://www.catf.us/2025/07/reimagining-utility-reform-post-aid-africa-key-insights-2025-utility-roundtable/

Chicago

Mukhaya, Brian, and Lily Odarno. Reimagining utility reform in a post-aid Africa: Key insights from the 2025 Utility Roundtable. Clean Air Task Force, 2025. https://www.catf.us/2025/07/reimagining-utility-reform-post-aid-africa-key-insights-2025-utility-roundtable/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Mukhaya |first1=Brian |last2=Odarno |first2=Lily |title=Reimagining utility reform in a post-aid Africa: Key insights from the 2025 Utility Roundtable |publisher=Clean Air Task Force |date=10 July 2025 |url=https://www.catf.us/2025/07/reimagining-utility-reform-post-aid-africa-key-insights-2025-utility-roundtable/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mukhaya2025reimagining, author = {Mukhaya, Brian and Odarno, Lily}, title = {{Reimagining utility reform in a post-aid Africa: Key insights from the 2025 Utility Roundtable}}, institution = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2025}, month = jul, url = {https://www.catf.us/2025/07/reimagining-utility-reform-post-aid-africa-key-insights-2025-utility-roundtable/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }