A heavy focus on generation in energy investments on the continent is a sign of “multiple policy failures,” Flavin says. Generation investments are “pointless” without equivalent investment in transmission.
Investment in African electricity transmission is largely to get off the ground. According to the World Bank, between 2010 and 2020, only 7.5% of electricity infrastructure investment went to sub-Saharan Africa. From that amount, 98.2% was for electricity generation projects, and less than 0.3% for transmission. That leaves transmission in sub-Saharan Africa with a negligible share of global electricity infrastructure investment over the 10-year period.
- Even where they exist, networks are often unreliable. According to the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, sub-Saharan African power lines lose $5b worth of power per year.
Gridworks, set up in 2019, is a
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