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Understanding electricity utilities in sub-Saharan Africa: The role of civil society in improving performance, governance, and accountability

Realizing the energy transition in sub-Saharan Africa will necessitate a major role of the electricity utilities in the region. From investing in new generation, to acting as a viable off-taker for privately-owned generators, to building out transmission and distribution infrastructure, to upgrading the grid, to creating a conducive environment for private sector investment; the electricity utilities will be central players. Unfortunately, however, utilities in the region are not in a robust position. Vicious cycles of compromised revenue collection, inefficient capital expenditure and inadequate maintenance spending, result poor service quality, high levels of indebtedness and an inability to borrow the money needed to upgrade the sector. At the heart of these problems are believed to be issues of weak governance.

Despite the centrality of utilities and their generally dire state of affairs, they have not been the focus of civil society social accountability advocacy efforts, and knowledge of their technical workings is generally limited among civil society actors.

Within this context Oxfam has spent 18 months undertaking research intended to inform advocacy on utility governance reform across Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. Further to the country specific work, Oxfam produced a primer on electricity utilities in sub-Saharan Africa, intended as means for bringing newly interested actors up to speed on how to understand and appraise a utility in a specific context. Together this research agenda supports the creation of a network of civil society actors capable of pursuing governance reforms aimed at improving the performance of utilities across the region, to support the energy transition. The four reports can be found below.

Publisher

Oxfam

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Research