Uganda Shakes up Electricity Access Amid Global Infrastructure Reset
Thursday, May 16, 2019
By Megan Rowling
Electricity providers in Uganda are teaming up to find a new business model to boost the speed and efficiency of getting power to those living without it, in the hope it can be copied in other parts of Africa and Asia, project backers said Tuesday.
About 1 billion people worldwide still lack access to electricity, according to the latest data, with efforts moving too slowly to meet a U.N. goal of providing clean, affordable power to everyone on the planet by 2030.
Meanwhile, about another 1 billion are connected to a weak electricity grid, suffering outages and a poor service, said Kristina Skierka, CEO of the Power for All campaign, which is coordinating the push in Uganda.
A major barrier to ending energy poverty is that national power utilities and the renewable energy companies that provide solar home systems and mini-grids for communities have rarely cooperated on the bigger picture, the group said in a report.
Photo courtesy of Russell Watkins / DFID.
Source: Reuters (link opens in a new window)
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