COMESA region needs 95 million new power connections for universal access by 2030 —Report

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region needs nearly 95 million new power connections for universal access by 2030, according to the latest study.

The demand for electricity in the trading bloc had been forecasted to grow by 57 percent from last year to 2030.

These are some of the key findings by the study released on Wednesday focusing on Estimating Investment Needs for the Power Sector in Africa 2023 – 2030.

The COMESA secretariat, through its Statistics Unit, was the executing agency for the Statistical Capacity Building Programme to undertake the study which was funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Other results from the study included a US$34 billion investments needed annually to meet the access, grid and generation expansion of the Base Case by 2030.

“More than 75 percent of needed Base-Case investments are in generation expansion, most of which is projected to happen in Egypt and Ethiopia.

“COMESA Member States account for more than half of the estimated Base-Case investment needs in Africa,” according to the report.

Commenting on the study at the virtual dissemination of the results, COMESA Assistant Secretary-General, Mohamed Kadah, said it provided a critical resource for energy policy planning within the region.

Kadah said a doubling of installed generation capacity is required to meet forecast demand growth by 2030 in the least-cost Base Case.

“The valuable study before you is not only a visionary academic exercise, but also and even more importantly a policy tool and a call for action.

“It provides the African countries and regional institutions with the information they need to make informed decisions about investment in the power sectors and determines optimal sets of investments to meet the growing demand for electricity in our respective countries and regions by the year 2030,” he said.

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