Universal energy access in Africa is within reach, but fragmented systems and expensive capital threaten progress, new report finds

17 June 2026 | Cape Town — During the Africa Energy Forum 2026, new research from the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet and the Lightrock Energy Access Platform lays out affordable and bankable ways to speed up electrification efforts in sub-Saharan Africa and reach the more than half a billion, mostly rural people, still living without energy access.

With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, Structuring for the Last Mile: Financing the Next Era of African Electrification takes a fresh look at what is holding electrification back and outlines how the public and private sectors can effectively manage risk and lower the cost of capital. In order to unlock the opportunities offered by renewable energy technologies in fast-growth markets, the report makes a series of recommendations for building sustainable systems that deliver reliable and affordable power across the continent.

Achieving universal access in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2035 requires around US$15 billion in annual investment, yet funding remains below US$2.5 billion a year.

Drawing on data and case studies from across Africa, the report highlights the urgent need for stronger public-private partnerships to close the continent’s energy access gap.

Key findings include:

• Partner Alignment. Governments, financiers, operators and investors must work together to build sustainable systems that deliver reliable and affordable power over time.
• Risk-Sharing. Critical demand, payment, and currency risks are priced and shared across governments, operators and financiers based on who is best placed to manage them. Instead of keeping the burden on private operators and financiers often bear demand, payment and currency risks that are better managed through public policy and risk-sharing mechanisms.
• Financing Models. With fragmented delivery models and poorly allocated risk driving up the cost of capital for rural electrification, applying proven infrastructure financing models to modern energy technologies could significantly lower costs and accelerate electrification.
• Operational Funding: Expanding electrification requires a shift from purely funding hardware to funding holistic, long-term delivery including operations, maintenance and system reliability.
• Better risk-sharing could significantly reduce DRE financing costs: The report finds private operators are carrying risks better managed by governments, and calls for stronger PPPs and guarantees to lower the cost of capital and accelerate electrification.
• Dedicated service areas can make rural electrification viable: Giving operators exclusive service territories alongside universal access obligations can reduce fragmentation, improve scale and make it economically feasible to reach remote communities.
• Data Expansion. Data collection must scale up to better understand demand and improve planning and pricing for productive electricity use.

The report also features a detailed case study from Zambia, where a pilot program to provide sustainable, reliable electricity service to hard-to-reach communities is modelled for US$42.50 per household per year. Scaling this model nationally would require less than US$100 million annually.

“We are making real progress,” said Carol Koech, Vice President for Africa at Global Energy Alliance. “This week, Mission 300 announced that 55 million people have gained access to electricity across Africa, demonstrating what is possible when governments, development partners, philanthropies and the private sector work together. But with population growth continuing to outpace new connections in many countries, we must move faster. This report outlines how we get there: through stronger partnerships, smarter financing and better risk-sharing. As we expand energy access, we must also expand economic opportunity, ensuring that electricity creates jobs and grows incomes in the communities it reaches.”

Mission 300 is an initiative led by the World Bank and African Development Bank with support from Global Energy Alliance, The Rockefeller Foundation and SEforAll, which aims to deliver electricity to 300 million people in Africa by 2030.

Hanaan Marwah, Executive Director of the Lightrock Energy Access Platform, said: “A number of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have made real progress on electrification over the past decade, but many rural communities are still being left behind. It is not only important that people have access to an electricity connection, but also that the wider context allows for affordable ongoing use to impact lives for the long term. By reducing fragmentation, allocating risk more systematically, and applying proven financing models to effective last-mile solutions and their servicing, governments and development partners can accelerate the path to universal energy access, connecting millions more people to reliable, affordable power and unlocking wider benefits across healthcare, education, resilience, and security.”

“We have to stop approaching electrification as a technology choice and start from the outcome: getting lasting, abundant power to every community, using whatever mix of grid and distributed solutions fits best,” said Cassady Walters, Vice President of Power at The Rockefeller Foundation. “As initiatives like Mission 300 mobilise billions, we have a rare chance to build the models that deliver energy access to every customer — paying operators for service rather than hardware, holding them to results, and sharing risk across governments, operators and financiers so capital flows at lower cost and greater scale. None of this is hypothetical: it’s already happening, even if no one has yet brought the pieces together at scale. This report draws those lessons into actionable models, and we were glad to support it.”

Download the full report

For media enquiries, contact:

Global Energy Alliance: media@energyalliance.org

Lightrock: press@lightrock.com

About the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet

Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet builds public, private and philanthropic partnerships to accelerate clean energy and economic opportunity. Founded in 2021 by The Rockefeller Foundation, IKEA Foundation and Bezos Earth Fund, we build the technical, financial and institutional foundations that make clean energy investable and scalable across emerging economies.  Our work is anchored in two mutually reinforcing global pillars that together address the market fragmentation that has historically slowed down progress on energy access and economic development. Grids of the Future strengthens energy supply through AI-enabled, renewables-ready power grids. Powering Opportunity builds demand, helping people harness clean energy to power businesses, create jobs and drive economic growth. Together, these pillars create a reinforcing cycle of abundant energy and economic opportunity. With 130 projects across Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, we are on track to reach 91 million people with clean energy, create or improve more than 3 million jobs and prevent nearly 300 million tons of carbon emissions. For more information, please visit www.energyalliance.org and follow us on LinkedIn.

About the Lightrock Energy Access Platform

The Lightrock Energy Access Platform (LEAP) is not-for-profit initiative designed to unlock scalable solutions to persistent barriers in energy access. It focuses on Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, where reliable energy can unlock economic opportunity at every level. Working alongside Accelerate7 and the wider Lightrock global investment platform, LEAP develops high-impact projects that mobilise capital, strengthen market conditions, and expand access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy across emerging economies. LEAP builds on Lightrock’s experience, relationships and access to capital to bring the right partners and resources together around practical solutions to energy access.For more information, visit www.lightrock.com