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<\/a><\/p>\nThe need is acute and measurable. In 2023, around 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa still had no electricity access, four in five of the world\u2019s unelectrified, despite a modest rebound after the pandemic setbacks<\/a>. Access deficits remain concentrated in Eastern and Southern Africa\u2019s low-income economies, where grid expansion is costly and incomes thin. Clean cooking is an even bigger health and climate issue: sub-Saharan Africa\u2019s reliance on charcoal and wood contributes to roughly 815,000 premature deaths each year and accelerates deforestation around fast-growing cities. Any serious access programme must therefore pair electrons with clean-cooking fuels and appliances; ASCENT\u2019s design acknowledges that reality by convening utilities alongside ministries of energy, rural agencies and private distributors.<\/p>\n Read also:\u00a0Kenya launches COMESA e-Certificate of Origin, cutting border time and carbon<\/a><\/p>\n Country baselines illustrate the spread. Kenya\u2019s access has climbed to about 76% on the latest World Bank series, helped by last-mile grid roll-outs and solar-home systems, but pockets of the arid north still lag. Zambia sits near the halfway mark overall, about 51% in 2023, with rural access trailing far behind urban centers. Malawi\u2019s system is among the most constrained, with access around 16% and a generation mix still vulnerable to hydrological shocks. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the electrification rate remains below 20% and the absolute number of people without power approaches 77 million<\/a>, an access deficit larger than many countries\u2019 entire populations. ASCENT\u2019s promise will be judged by whether these gaps narrow in places where the economics are hardest.<\/p>\n The programme\u2019s practicality lies in how it threads national projects into regional systems. Power pools and cross-border lines turn stranded capacity into tradable supply. The Kenya\u2013Tanzania interconnector, energized in late 2024 with 1.5 GW capability, allows surplus geothermal or hydropower to move north\u2013south within the Eastern Africa Power Pool. The Zambia\u2013Tanzania\u2013Kenya (ZTK) interconnector was relaunched in 2025<\/a> with backing from the World Bank, EU and UK, signaling political will to complete the missing links between the Southern African and Eastern pools. When such lines are live, drought-hit systems can import rather than shed load, and new renewables in one country can serve customers in another.<\/p>\n Read also:\u00a0UNDP pushes for high-integrity carbon markets to unlock Africa\u2019s climate finance potential<\/a><\/p>\n Market plumbing matters as much as steel in the ground. The Southern African Power Pool\u2019s wholesale market has been scaling traded volumes and tightening price discovery, a signal that utilities view cross-border purchases as part of their normal dispatch, not a last resort. Angola\u2019s latent surplus, about 3,000 MW above peak demand, illustrates what interconnections can unlock for neighbors still running diesel and suffering from chronic deficits. ASCENT\u2019s regional lens lines up with these dynamics by helping countries prioritize investments that maximize trade and resilience, rather than building isolated megawatts that cannot move across borders.<\/p>\n Access will not be solved by grids alone, and the mini-grid data are clarifying. The latest State of the Global Mini-Grids Market report<\/a> counts roughly 72 operational mini-grids in Zambia and 36 in Kenya captured in one core database, with installed capacities in the single-digit megawatts but outsized impact on clinics, schools and rural enterprises. The report\u2019s bottom-up analysis shows installations climbing steadily and investor interest diversifying, but also stresses the need for predictable tariffs, performance-based grants and integration with national planning. ASCENT\u2019s promise to harmonize standards and digitize monitoring is directly responsive to those constraints.<\/p>\n A practical example shows what success could look like. Malawi\u2019s Mpatamanga hydropower project<\/a>, backed by a recent US$350 million World Bank grant within a US$1.5 billion public-private package, will add 358 MW and is expected to connect over a million new households by 2030. On its own, that plant cannot guarantee reliability if rainfall falters; paired with interconnectors and a pipeline of solar, storage and mini-grids, it can support steady urban supply while freeing scarce public funds to extend last-mile networks and underwrite clean-cooking transitions in peri-urban settlements. This is precisely the systems view ASCENT says it will champion.<\/p>\n Read also:\u00a0EU\u2019s carbon border tax reforms set to redraw Africa\u2013Europe trade dynamics ahead of 2026 rollout<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Academy-Website-ads-4.png\")
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