In its 2019 ‘Africa Energy Outlook’, the International Energy Agency projects that Africa’s urban population will increase by more than half a billion people by 2040.
Such drastic urban growth will inevitably cause a corresponding demand for industrial production, residential amenities and mobility. In anticipation of these growing needs, state-backed electricity distributors in East Africa have made multi-billion-dollar long-term investments into power generation projects over the past decade. However, 2020 has seen these distributors and electricity retailers forced to delicately manage ongoing and upcoming liabilities in the face of substantial economic uncertainty and unpredictable demand.
