The Impact of Market-Based Policies on Access to Electricity and Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

The huge attention currently afforded to renewable energy-based decentralised energy systems, as means for accelerating rural electrification and hence development, has triggered massive consideration and interest given the cost involved in extending existing grids to rural communities of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In most of these communities, access to electricity is essentially restricted to basic domestic utilisation or needs such as: lighting, cooking and storage purposes. Although, small-scale farming consists of the main occupation in rural communities of SSA, it remains less developed and does not take advantage of available renewable energy resources succeptible to promote its expansion and development. However, the potential in renewable energy resources (solar PV, wind, etc.) in SSA countries could be counted as important attribute for the enablement of access to electricity. As a direct consequence of this, sustainable agricultural development may be achieved in order to ensure food security and to prevent urban migration by promoting employment opportunities and poverty alleviation in rural communities of SSA countries as dictated by the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs). Despite the promotion of access to clean electricity being advocated in the literature as the stepping-stone for sustainable development and growth, the gap remains the choice of suitable policy option susceptible to balance access to electricity with sustainable development in rural communities of SSA. In this work, the six-step policy analysis is applied to probe the effectiveness of market-based policies in enhancing access to electricity and agricultural development in rural communities of selected SSA countries. Results show that despite the shortcomings in the implementation of this policy in many SSA countries, this policy approach proves to be favorable to increased share of renewable energies, which translates into increased electrification of the agriculture sector.