This article has been supplied.The policy conversation across Africa is shifting from basic electrification toward interconnection and industrial enablement.
More than 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa still lack access to electricity, but the emerging focus is on ensuring that connected grids can support manufacturing, mineral processing and digital industries at scale.
Considering these themes, the Power Africa Today conference - hosted during African Energy Week (AEW) 2026 in Cape Town from October 12‒16 - will feature a high-level panel session, Powering African Industries: Operations, Productivity and Economic Competitiveness.
The session reflects a growing recognition that electricity is a defining input for industrial performance, productivity and long-term development across African economies.
African businesses continue to absorb an estimated $30 billion to $50 billion annually in costs from unreliable grids and diesel generation. This structural inefficiency has become a central barrier to competitiveness, pushing governments and investors to prioritize stable baseload power, transmission expansion and diversified generation portfolios that reduce operational risk and long-term production costs.
