This article is based on a conversation from Voices & Visions, a podcast produced through a partnership between Tutto Passa Agency and TechCabal, which explores the people and ideas shaping Africa’s innovation economy.
Africa’s electricity problem becomes harder, not easier, as the number of people without power reduces.
The first households are relatively straightforward to connect. They live close enough to existing distribution infrastructure, consume enough electricity to justify the investment, and often have predictable incomes that allow utilities or solar companies to recover their costs.
The people left behind tend to be different. They may live hundreds of kilometres from major transmission lines, move with livestock, live in refugee settlements, or survive on incomes too irregular to qualify for conventional financing. Extending a power line to them can cost more than the electricity they are likely to consume over the next few years.
Originally published by TechCabal.