Electrification is one of sub-Saharan Africa’s most pressing socio-economic challenges.
Less than a third of the sub-Saharan population has access to electricity, and around 600,000
premature deaths are caused each year by household air pollution resulting from the use of
polluting fuels for cooking and lighting.
SOLVING this ISSUE is a fundamental prerequisite for unleashing sub-Saharan Africa’s
economic potential. Given the magnitude of the challenge, only a joint effort involving subSaharan
African countries and international public and private parties would pave the way to
a solution.
Sub-Saharan African countries should be the first to move. They should reform the
governance of their energy sectors, in particular by reforming their generally inefficient stateowned
electricity utilities, and by phasing-out market-distorting energy subsidies. Without
such reforms, international investment will never scale-up across sub-Saharan Africa.
international PUBLIC AND private parties must play a key role in facilitating sub-Saharan
Africa’s energy transformation, particularly the electrification of rural areas, where
three-fifths of the sub-Saharan African population lives. International public support is
particularly important to crowd-in international private investors, most notably through innovative
public-private partnerships.
China and the United States are already engaged in electrification in sub-Saharan
Africa. China has substantially invested in large-scale electricity projects, while the US has put
in place a comprehensive initiative – Power Africa – to scale-up electrification, particularly in
rural areas, through public-private partnerships.
Europe has, instead, created a myriad of fragmented initiatives to … ( to download the report click here)

SIMONE TAGLIAPIETRA /BRUEGEL ©2017