撒哈拉以南非洲电力公司财务业绩不佳的原因是什么？

What Underlies the Poor Financial Performanceof Electric Utilities in Sub-Saharan Africa? Govinda R Timilsina Development EconomicsDevelopment Research GroupNovember 2025 Policy Research Working Paper11257 Abstract This study investigates the factors responsible for the poorperformance of 67 electric utilities in 47 countries, usingdescriptive data from the World Bank, the InternationalEnergy Agency, the U.S. Energy Information Administra-tion, and national sources. The findings show that bothcost-side and revenue-side factors are responsible for thepoor financial performance of electric utilities. More thantwo-thirds of vertically integrated utilities and electricitydistribution utilities are unable to cover their operationaland debt service costs by their revenues. The main causesof the poor financial performance are high fuel costs (par-ticularly oil), low capacity factors, low capital and laborproductivity, high transmission and distribution losses, andleakage in electricity bill collections. The study finds that inthese countries, despite their much lower per capita income, consumers face relatively higher electricity tariffs than inmany countries around the world. The study also finds thatif the transmission and distribution losses were reducedto the current level of South Africa (11 percent) and theleakages in bill collection were eliminated, several electricutilities that are currently operating at a loss would havehigher revenue than their operational cost. The findingsindicate that policy makers in the region should focus ona portfolio of policies, including switching from expensivegeneration to emerging cheaper options, improving factorproductivities, having efficient institutions and governance,reducing transmission and distribution losses, improvingbill collection, and reforming tariffs. The policy prioritiescould vary across countries, depending on the roles of var-ious factors contributing to poor financial performance. The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about developmentissues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry thenames of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely thoseof the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank andits affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. 1. Introduction The Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region facesa significant challengeto increase accessto electricity. Almost 600 million people (or 43% of the total population) in the SSA region donot have access to electricity (World Bank, 2025a). The situation is worse in the rural areas,with only 26% of the population having access to electricity (World Bank, 2025a). Even ifthere is access, the quality of supply is poor due to hours of scheduled outages of electricity(loadshedding)every day,frequent unscheduled outages,and voltage drops andfluctuations (Hafner et al. 2018). One of the primary reasons for lack of access and lowquality of supply is the inability of electricity utilities toefficiently operate the existing supplycapacity and to add new capacity. Thisinability is linked with poor financialperformancecharacterized by much higher operational and debt service costs as compared to theirrevenue, despite the direct government subsidies they receive for a prolonged time.Institutional inefficiencyis the major factor behind the high operational costs per unit ofelectricity generation and lower revenue generation per unit of electricity sold. This study evaluates the performance of 67 electricity utilities in the SSA region forwhich data is available.1These utilities are divided into six groups based on their functionalresponsibilities. These are (i) vertically integrated utilities (VIU) which provide all threefunctions (i.e., electricity generation, transmission and distribution) for supplying electricityservices; (ii) electricity generation utilities (EGUs) which generate electricity and sell toelectricity transmission and/or distribution utilities/companies;(iii) electricity generationand transmission utilities (EGTs) which are responsible for electricity generation andtransmission, and sell electricity to electricity distributors (e.g., distribution utilities, privatecompanies, community groups, municipalities); (iv) electric utilities for transmissionpurpose only (ETUs), these utilities buys electricity from generators and sale to distributors;(v) electricity utilities with both transmission and distribution (T&D) responsibilities (TDUs)which buy electricity from EGUs and perform the transmission and distribution services; andfinally (vi) electricity distribution utilities (EDUs) whose funct