Can Africa Make Energy Access Bankable at Scale?

Africa does not only need more electricity. It needs energy investment that moves in step with economic growth.

Hosted by Energy News Network (ENN) in partnership with The Electricity Hub, Let’s Talk Energy continues its series recorded live at the Africa Energy Forum 2026 in Cape Town with Edward Borgstein, Advisor at the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet.

For Edward, one of the biggest challenges is not technology or even the availability of capital. It is coordination. Power projects need productive demand, while mines, agriculture, industry and businesses need reliable electricity before they can grow. Getting both sides to develop together is critical to creating bankable projects.

The conversation explores Mission 300, the role of blended finance and the challenge of attracting long-term infrastructure capital into last-mile electrification. Edward also discusses Global Energy Alliance’s work on productive use, distributed renewables and new models designed to turn electricity connections into economic opportunity.

Edward also references Structuring for the Last Mile, a report developed by Global Energy Alliance with Lightrock, Columbia University and other partners, examining how governments and the private sector can share risk, improve delivery and attract long-term finance into last-mile energy access.

And as Africa’s energy sector matures, he makes a counterintuitive case: perhaps the goal should be to make infrastructure investment less innovative, and far more predictable.