Experts from the energy and regulatory institutions of the Government of Senegal, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), and the RES4Africa Foundation on Wednesday, March 3, 2021, held a virtual meeting to discuss the energy policy and regulation required to attract the participation of the private sector across the country’s electricity value chain.

The electricity sector regulatory review currently underway across Africa is part of the ECA Executive Secretary Vera Songwe’s initiative under the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 Finance Initiative, which seeks to strengthen the sector’s governance to crowd-in investment in energy sector.

Speaking on behalf of the Minister of Energy, Oumy Khairy Diop stated that the ECA and RES4Africa regulatory review towards private sector participation in Senegal’s electricity value chain is in harmony with the national strategic sector plan.

She also indicated that universal access to energy and meeting SDG7 requires private sector participation, and addressing regulatory constraints is key towards this ambition.

ECA SRO-WA Director, Ngone Diop, thanked the Senegalese Petroleum and Energy Minister, Ms. Sophie GLADIMA, for the cooperation and partnership with the ECA. She highlighted that “the economic transformation of Senegal requires developing the energy sector, which is best supported by addressing regulatory barriers to maximizing investment from the private sector”.

She pointed out that the ECA will remain engaged with Senegal towards supporting the improvement of the electricity regulatory environment in the West African country.

Yohannes Hailu, Economic Affairs Officer at the ECA, underlined that “bridging current regulatory gaps, such as putting in place a grid code with clear rules for access to the national grid by investors, can further support the development of the energy sector in Senegal by crowding-in scaled private sector investment.

“The regulatory review in Senegal is, therefore, aimed at identifying the strength and current gaps in regulating the electricity market and communicating relevant findings with authorities towards gap-filling partnership”.

Furthermore, Andrea Renzulli, an energy expert at RES4Africa Foundation, remarked that the RES4Africa Missing Link initiative aims to identify key barriers to private sector participation in Africa’s energy sector. This, according to him, would help establish effective partnerships with countries towards working together to address regulatory challenges to private sector investment in the electricity market of Africa.

The meeting is part of a continental effort to address regulatory barriers to private sector participation in the energy sector.

Similar validation meetings have been held with experts in Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zambia.

According to RES4Africa Foundation, five years after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals and with just ten years ahead to achieve the Agenda’s objectives, their strategic analysis shows that Africa is the region that has experienced the least development in the renewable energy sector worldwide in the last decade.

A breakdown of the statistics shows that Africa accounted experienced only 2% as compared to Europe 22%, North America 11%, Latin America 6%, India 5%, China 41%, rest of the world 13%. This is against the backdrop of the continent having the greatest wealth and potential of resources.