African countries must abandon one-size-fits-all approaches to energy and industrial policy and instead identify their individual constraints before pursuing regional integration, Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Benjamin Boakye, has said.
Speaking during an expert chat on Competing In A New Global Industrial Order: What Must Africa Get Right, Mr. Boakye argued that Africa’s industrial ambitions could not be supported by broad continental policy prescriptions that fail to account for differences in energy systems, resource endowments, infrastructure and investment conditions.
The argument comes as African countries seek to use energy transition opportunities and critical mineral resources to build domestic industries rather than remain exporters of raw materials.
Energy Costs Require Local Diagnosis
Mr. Boakye identified energy as one of the most important variables shaping industrial competitiveness but cautioned against treating the continent’s energy problems as though they have a single cause.
The cost structure facing an industrial producer in Ghana, for example, may be driven by different factors from those affecting a manufacturer in Kenya or another African market.
That means policies designed around a continental diagnosis can produce solutions that fail to address the actual source of high energy costs at the national level.
“What drives the cost of energy in Ghana is not what drives it in Kenya, so the diagnosis and therefore the remedy differ.”
Benjamin Boakye, Executive Director, ACEP
The distinction is particularly relevant to industrial policy because energy costs are embedded throughout production.
Electricity prices affect processing, manufacturing, refrigeration, mining, transport infrastructure and technology adoption.
If governments fail to understand the specific factors driving those costs, industrial incentives may address symptoms rather than structural problems.
The more effective approach would begin with detailed country-level mapping of energy costs, generation capacity, transmission constraints, fuel availability, utility performance and industrial demand.
Energy planning would then be linked directly to the industries a country intends to develop.
This would also prevent a situation where industrial projects are forced to develop their own power systems because national electricity infrastructure is unable to provide reliable supply at the required scale.
Planning Power For Production
The broader implication is that energy planning should move beyond consumption-based forecasting.
Industrial economies require energy systems designed around productive demand.
Processing minerals, manufacturing batteries, operating cold-storage facilities and producing industrial goods require predictable power at competitive prices.
An energy system that merely expands household access without anticipating productive demand may improve access statistics while leaving industrial competitiveness unresolved.
For Africa, the distinction is crucial because the continent is simultaneously attempting to expand electricity access and industrialise.
Both objectives require investment, but industrialisation places additional demands on the scale, reliability and quality of electricity supply.
The challenge therefore extends beyond adding megawatts.
The economic value of additional generation depends on whether the electricity reaches productive sectors at prices that allow those sectors to compete.
Regional Integration Needs Technical Preparation
Mr. Boakye also raised concerns about the implementation of regional power integration.
Although African countries have established regional power pools, individual countries continue to develop national electricity systems that can be difficult and expensive to integrate later.
The problem is not simply political cooperation. Technical compatibility can determine whether regional electricity markets function efficiently.
Transmission voltage standards are one example.
If national systems are developed using incompatible technical standards, future integration may require costly retrofitting, reducing the economic benefits of regional power pools.
The implication is that regional institutions need to address technical standardisation before infrastructure investments become deeply entrenched.
“The conversation that should be happening now is about standardising voltages, so that future integration does not require costly retrofitting.”
Benjamin Boakye, Executive Director, ACEP
A stronger division of responsibility would therefore be required.
Countries should identify their own constraints and opportunities, while regional bodies should focus on decisions that genuinely require collective action.
Such an arrangement could prevent regional institutions from attempting to prescribe solutions to national problems while ensuring that issues such as power-pool standards, cross-border transmission and regional electricity trading receive coordinated treatment.
Domestic Resources And External Capital
The expert chat also questioned the credibility of African governments seeking external financing while domestic resources continue to generate limited visible productive infrastructure.
Mr. Boakye argued that billions are mobilised from African citizens through taxes and other domestic revenues, yet the infrastructure and serious investment expected from those resources are often not sufficiently visible.
The issue goes beyond revenue mobilisation. It concerns the ability of states to demonstrate that domestic resources can be converted into productive assets.
A government that cannot show clear value from domestic revenue may face a weaker negotiating position when seeking external capital.
External investors and development partners ultimately assess not only the availability of resources but also institutional capacity, project preparation and the credibility of government decision-making.
This makes domestic investment performance part of the broader case for attracting foreign capital.
Political Will And Institutional Accountability
Mr. Boakye further linked political decision-making with corruption and weak representation of state interests.
Political will, in such circumstances, cannot be treated as an abstract willingness to act.
Where investment decisions are influenced by narrow interests, poor analysis or opaque processes, policy outcomes may reflect private incentives rather than national development priorities.
The proposed response was to build a critical mass of technically capable institutions and organisations able to support governments in making defensible decisions.
A small but committed group of approximately three to five organisations, according to the discussion, could provide sustained technical pressure, challenge weak assumptions and amplify voices advocating stronger public-interest decisions.
The model recognises that broad public participation in every technical investment decision may not be practical, but sustained institutional scrutiny can improve accountability.
The same principle applies to civil society and technical institutions: participation at the policy table should involve stress-testing decisions rather than automatically endorsing them.
Transparency As A Presidential Priority
Asked to provide a single piece of advice to a president seeking to navigate the new global industrial order, Mr. Boakye identified transparency, framed primarily as listening rather than merely disclosure.
The recommendation captures the central argument of the discussion.
Africa’s competitiveness challenge is not solely a question of attracting more investment.
It is a question of whether governments possess enough information, technical capacity and institutional independence to determine which investments create lasting domestic value.
As competition intensifies around critical minerals, clean energy technologies and industrial supply chains, countries that understand their own constraints will be better positioned to negotiate with investors and coordinate regional markets.
The strategic priority should therefore be to move from policy reaction to evidence-based planning, ensuring that energy, finance, industrial development and regional integration reinforce rather than undermine one another.
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