About the Event​

The African Union, on June 4th, 2021, officially launched the African Single Electricity Market (AfSEM), the world’s largest continent-wide energy trading program meant to interconnect all 55 African Union Member States through an efficient, affordable, and sustainable electricity market (AU 2021). The first phase of AfSEM was envisaged to be achieved by 2023, reaching full operationalization by 2040. The goal was to give African households, businesses, and industries more secure, sustainable, reliable, competitive, and affordable energy. To achieve its objectives and targets, Africa needed significant private investment in electricity infrastructures, from generation to networks and off-grid systems.
Creating a stable, transparent, and predictable environment to attract private investment required designing and implementing sound policy and regulatory frameworks. This edition of the ASR Talk discussed how to advance African electricity markets’ openness, attractiveness, and readiness for private sector participation through fit-for-purpose policy and regulatory reforms. The dialogue also discussed RES4Africa and UNECA’s main findings of their Regulatory Reviews of Electricity Markets in 16 African countries.