WB: Kenya to miss 2020 electricity access deadline

Kenya's progress in accelerating electricity connectivity has largely been credited to the Last Mile Connectivity Project. [File, Standard]

Kenya could miss its target of achieving universal electricity access by next year but is on course to meet the global target ahead of 2030, according to the World Bank.

The World Bank says in a new report that although the country has in the last decade made major progress in connecting its citizens to the electricity grid as well as other off-grid power systems, 2020 might come too soon to achieve universal connectivity.

The global lender, however, expects the country to achieve this before 2030.

The report also notes that electricity access rate in Kenya is the highest in East Africa, with the country also way ahead of other countries on the continent.

“Ghana and Kenya stand out as successes and are projected to achieve universal access before 2030, but progress in the region is highly uneven,” reads the World Bank’s Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report.

Electricity access in Kenya has grown largely due to the implementation of the Last Mile Connectivity Project. The project was launched in 2015 and was aimed at scaling up connectivity in rural and peri-urban areas through subsidised connections. This has resulted in a surge in the number of power consumers.

According to electricity distributor Kenya Power, national electricity access from both grid and off-grid solution as of the end of June last year had risen to 73 per cent compared to 29 per cent five years earlier.

The World Bank report,  which tracks global progress on the three targets of SDG7—access to energy and clean cooking, renewable energy and energy efficiency—shows that despite the progress, millions more will be left without electricity access by 2030.

“Global electrification rate reached 89 per cent; the number of people without electricity access dropped to around 840 billion, compared to one billion in 2016 and 1.2 billion in 2010,” it reads in part.

It adds that most third-world countries have made significant progress. “Among countries with the largest population without access to electricity, Bangladesh, Kenya, Myanmar, and Sudan have made the most progress,” says the report.