Energy poverty and AfCFTA implementation
At the G20 Energy Investment Forum hosted by the African Energy Chamber, NEPAD chief executive Nardos Bekele-Thomas warned that energy poverty is the biggest threat to the African Continental Free Trade Area, the flagship market-integration pact endorsed by all 55 states.
She argued that without reliable, affordable electricity, the agreement’s promise of boosting intra-African commerce and industrialisation cannot be realised, as factories, logistics platforms and digital services depend on diesel generators that inflate costs and erode the competitiveness the AfCFTA seeks to unlock.
Continental Master Plan for power integration
Bekele-Thomas placed the Continental Master Plan at the centre of the response, describing it as a blueprint for synchronising national grids, expanding generation and enabling cross-border trade in electricity from unevenly distributed sources. “Africa’s energy future is integrated and continental,” she stressed.
The CMP combines more than 60 transmission projects, from Sahara solar hubs to Congo River hydro upgrades, into what NEPAD calls the world’s largest interconnection system, meant to serve as backbone for the AfCFTA’s envisaged single market of 1.4 billion consumers.
By prioritising regional links over isolated national schemes, the plan is designed to capture economies of scale, smooth supply gaps and lower tariffs, aligning with Agenda 2060 targets on industrialisation, climate resilience and intraregional value chains, she explained.
Closing the bankability gap through the SDM
Despite plentiful resources, fewer than 10 percent of identified energy projects reach financial close, chiefly because early-stage studies are under-funded, Bekele-Thomas noted. NEPAD’s Service Delivery Mechanism is tasked with providing transaction advisory, engineering support and standardised documentation to move projects from concept to bankable stage.
“The SDM is our accelerator,” she told delegates, adding that once a project clears the mechanism’s due-diligence process, multilateral lenders and private equity funds receive a clear signal that sovereign, regulatory and technical risks have been mitigated to acceptable thresholds.
Transmission lines reframed as strategic corridors
NEPAD has started presenting transmission backbones not as standalone assets but as multi-use development corridors, bundling power, fibre and transport components. According to the CEO, this integrated packaging maximises economic impact, promotes investor confidence and entrenches African ownership of the integration agenda.
For Congo Basin states, such corridors could channel hydroelectric surpluses eastward while opening logistics routes to Atlantic ports, creating positive spill-overs for forestry, mining and digital sectors that currently face infrastructure bottlenecks rather than geological constraints.
Role of African multilateral finance
Bekele-Thomas called on African Development Bank, Afreximbank and other continental financiers to step in as first-loss providers, leveraging their strong capital positions to attract insurance syndicates and pension funds that increasingly seek green-tagged emerging-market assets.
She argued that aligning loan covenants with the AfCFTA’s policy framework would shorten negotiations, reduce currency-matching issues and demonstrate that African institutions can structure deals at scale without over-reliance on external concessional windows.
Opportunities around Congo Basin resources
Hydropower potential exceeding 100 GW in the Congo Basin remains largely untapped; under the CMP, future interconnectors could move this low-carbon electricity to energy-deficit industrial hubs in West and Southern Africa, complementing gas-fired peaking plants and solar farms.
For investors, early engagement with local utilities, environmental agencies and community stakeholders will be essential to secure licences and carbon-credit eligibility, while respecting the rainforest’s ecological significance, which NEPAD positions as a comparative advantage rather than a constraint.
Powering SMEs and digital services
Bekele-Thomas underlined that electrification is not an end in itself; reliable power must flow into cold chains, fintech data centres and light-manufacturing clusters that anchor the AfCFTA’s promised jobs. She urged policymakers to link transmission roll-outs with last-mile distribution and tailored tariffs for micro-entrepreneurs.
Evidence from pilot industrial parks shows that every megawatt of stable supply can create up to 1,000 indirect positions across logistics, retail and agribusiness, a multiplier effect NEPAD wants donors to incorporate when measuring developmental impact rather than focusing solely on kilowatt-hour outputs.
Key signals for market participants
Analysts tracking the AfCFTA timeline should watch which pilot transmission projects receive SDM certification in 2024, how quickly host governments ratify updated wheeling regulations, and whether transaction advisors succeed in bundling currency-hedging instruments with construction guarantees.
If the master plan advances, the continent’s fragmented power map could evolve into an integrated asset class, lowering operational risks for manufacturers and opening a new field of infrastructure bonds and public-private partnerships that align both commercial returns and regional development priorities.
