Guidelines for Advancing Economic and Quality of Service Regulation in Africa's Electricity Sector

August 2021 – With support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Power Africa, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) collaborated with the African Development Bank (AfDB) to develop Guidelines for Advancing Economic and Quality of Service Regulation in Africa’s Electricity Sector.

The Guidelines offer concrete, context-specific insights and strategies for African electricity regulators and other key stakeholders to consider in their efforts to support robust, equitable development in the sector. Effective regulatory oversight is critical for attracting and maintaining private investment, increasing electricity access and reliability, and protecting consumers at all levels of society.

The Guidelines report is based on trends and regulatory gaps identified in the AfDB’s Electricity Regulatory Index (ERI) for Africa, which methodologically assesses African countries’ performance in electricity regulatory governance, substance, and outcomes. While regulatory governance scores skewed relatively high across the continent in 2020, most countries consistently scored lower on the regulatory substance indicators measuring economic and quality of service (QoS) regulation.

Given the importance of economic and quality of service regulation to achieving positive regulatory outcomes, the Guidelines report prioritizes these critical areas, while also addressing cross-cutting issues. For each substantive issue addressed, the report provides detailed explanations of the technical foundations, while noting common implementation challenges and providing recommendations for improving regulatory performance as measured by the ERI.

You can access the Guidelines here. The French translation is also available here.