Uganda has been named the top performing country in the Electricity Regulatory Index (ERI) for Africa 2020 by the African Development Bank (AfDB). Along with Uganda, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Kenya make up the top five spots in this year’s index as countries with well-developed electricity regulatory frameworks.
Published in its third edition, the AfDB’s ERI has become an authoritative tool for analysing the continent’s regulatory environment. The 36 participating countries were ranked according to how developed their electricity regulatory frameworks are and to what extent they align with international best practice.
GET.transform has been working with the Ugandan Regulatory Authority (ERA) since 2019 to address the challenges in the rapidly growing sub-sector of off-grid electrification. Like Nigeria, Uganda has been an early-mover in promoting off-grid technologies as part of their strategy for universal electricity access. Alongside India, Kenya and Ethiopia, Uganda is one of the biggest off-grid solar markets in the world, and ERA has been quick to realise this opportunity to reach national objectives.
Uganda offers mini-grid developers a unique regulatory framework, whereby government provides risk mitigation and reduced project preparation costs, coupled with bundled licensing for many villages simultaneously. In 2020, GET.transform is working with ERA to strengthen the mini-grid tariff framework and technical standards, and with these pieces in place, Uganda is looking to scale up mini-grid electrification substantially, with now 1500 villages understood to be viable.
Find the Electricity Regulatory Index for Africa 2020 at: afdb.org