Picture credit: Russell Watkins/Department for International Development Pictured: Elizabeth Mukwimba

Africa Energy Program

Accelerating electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa

Our Work
Empowering Clean Economies
Africa Energy Program

Image Courtesy Off-Grid Electric

What Is The Africa Energy Program?

The Africa Energy Program partners with governments, utilities, development partners, and the private sector in sub-Saharan Africa to drive affordable, efficient, and resilient energy systems that incorporate emerging distributed energy resources to rapidly provide energy access and increase economic development.

Photo credit: Irene Angwenyi / USAID Kenya

Why It Matters

Today, more than 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to reliable electricity. What’s more, it is the only region in the world where population growth is outstripping growth in access, which means the percentage of people in the region with access to electricity—and the benefits it brings—is set to decline.

Picture credit: Joerg Boethling

What We’re Doing

We are working in sub-Saharan Africa to increase access to and the productive use of sustainable electricity. Our goal is to transform the power sector and demonstrate how a whole-systems approach improves lives and accelerates economic development.

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Photo courtesy of Eric Wanless

What We’ve Accomplished

Ethiopia

In partnership with the regulator, utility and, the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity we’ve defined the value that energy efficiency has in decreasing utility losses, increasing economic productivity, and freeing up capacity for better quality service and additional connections.
We are supporting development partners and the government to explore off-grid technology solutions, codify the role solutions like minigrids play in Ethiopia’s National Electrification Plan and link electrification to the productive use of energy.

Nigeria

Our team quantified the minigrid market potential and defined a series of real-world project financials, which has created global interest in the Nigeria market. We now see an intense focus on minigrid development that will result in hundreds to thousands of communities and markets receiving high-quality power for the first time.
We’re facilitating “undergrid” minigrid project development with distribution companies and minigrid developers. When these sites are developed they will demonstrate the value of minigrid integration with the traditional grid which will serve as a beacon for what is possible with a more collaborative approach globally.

Uganda

Our holistic energy plan identified the need to focus on investment beyond traditional power supply in order to avoid taking on additional unnecessary debt and to ensure the value of energy access is realized through demand stimulation programs. As a result, Uganda energy stakeholders are aware and aligned on the importance of these issues - a critical first step toward long-term change

Rwanda

Our integrated planning work with the utility led to a clear understanding that too much capacity coming onto the grid in large pieces could create challenges for the country; this work contributed to the decision to change their investment approach to be more firmly grounded in robust analytics
We co-developed an off-grid electrification strategy that led to multiple solar home system companies operating in Rwanda which leads to lower pricing and better products for consumers.

Clean Renewable Energy for African Countries

We’re working with the United Nations Development Programme and the Global Environment Facility to accelerate cost reductions in minigrids and increase their commercial viability to scale the impact they have on access rates and economic development.

Our Partners

Virgin Unite

Partner

The Rockefeller Foundation

Partner

Our Team

Richenda
Van Leeuwen
Managing Director

Eric Wanless
Senior Principal

James Sherwood
Principal

Kelly Carlin
Manager

Katie Lau
Marketing Manager

Scarlett Santana
Manager

Alexander Komakech Akena
East Africa Regional Coordinator

Edward Borgstein
Director

Wayne Omonuwa
Nigeria Energy Lead

Andrew Allee
Research Fellow

Ruosida (Star) Lin
Senior Associate

Zihe Meng
Senior Associate

Kester Wade
Associate

Alexis Tubb
Senior Associate

Shelley Backstrom
Program Coordinator

Olatunde Okeowo
Associate

Patience Bukirwa
Associate

Resources

David Babarinde with his retrofitted grain flour mill, which now runs on 24/7 electricity from a minigrid in Gbamu Gbamu community, Ogun state, Nigeria.

Blog

Synchronizing Agriculture and Distributed Energy Can Reduce Nigeria’s Oil Dependency

May 5, 2020

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Photo credit: Irene Angwenyi / USAID Kenya

Open Project

SDG-7 Microsite Development RFP

2020

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Insight Brief

Capturing the Productive Use Dividend

2020

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African girls and women sorting coffee beans on coffee farm, Ethiopia, Africa. Little children are working under tables - they picking up every single coffee bean dropped accidentally by women and putting these dropped coffee beans back on the tables.