5 years on from the launch of Green Mini-Grids Africa – what’s been achieved?

In March this year the Green Mini-Grids (GMGs) Africa Regional Facility programme officially closed, marking 5 years of DFID support to the development of the sector in Africa. That support is continuing seamlessly, into a second phase, now as part of the wider Africa Clean Energy (ACE) programme.

If the launch of the programme in 2014 was part of the process of “forming” the mini-grids sector, Steven Hunt, Senior Energy and Innovation Advisor at DFI, thinks it’s fair to say the last 5 years has also seen its share of “storming” as a range of approaches have been tried to bringing together the key elements of industrial capabilities, government policy and private finance. With larger country programmes now in place, with increasingly supportive policies drawing on better-evidenced playbooks, and cross-sectoral second generation initiatives like the Universal Energy Facility in development – I think we are now in the necessary “norming” phase, before the “performing” needed to meet the 2030 SDG7 target.

The original GMGs Africa business case had the following stated objectives:

“This programme aims to help transform the Green Mini-Grids sector in Africa from a nascent and sporadic series of pilot projects, to a thriving industry on track to contribute the IEA’s (International Energy Agency) estimated 40% of universal electricity access by 2030. This will be achieved by creating a critical mass of experience and evidence of GMGs success in two countries, coupled with improved policy and market conditions for investment in mini-grids regionally.”

In the 5 years since the programme started so many things have changed, new partnerships have emerged, new governments have seen the potential of mini-grids, new funding partners have come int o the market, and much more. That makes it difficult really to even assess the programme as originally conceived against how things have gone, but Steven Hunt joined together each of the key outcomes that you can read on the full article here.