How to (more reliably) electrify Africa for economic growth and development

Deepening energy access must be complemented by an aggressive pro-growth agenda; with sufficient attention to economic and political incentives

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I: Energy for growth

I was recently hosted by the brilliant Rose Mutiso and Katie Auth on their High Energy Planet podcast (highly recommended). Among other things, we discussed aid cuts and the political economy of energy access in African countries. You can find wright ups of our conversation here and here. Rose and Katie are directors for research and policy, respectively, at the Energy for Growth Hub.

Among other things, the conversation got me thinking more about Mission 300 — the ambitious initiative by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the World Bank, and a number of other organizations which aims to extend power to at least 300m Africans over the next 5 years. For comparison, it has taken the better part of a decade for 100m more Africans to be connected to the grid, with the growth in connectio…