Kenya, South Africa Draw Private Capital into Power Transmission
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Private capital is beginning to finance African transmission, a segment of the power sector historically funded by state utilities and development lenders. Kenya signed its first privately financed transmission concession in December 2025 and South Africa is preparing its first private transmission tender for 2027. Both programs aim to make grid infrastructure more attractive to investors by addressing revenue certainty and payment risk, issues that will feature at the Invest in African Energy (IAE) forum in Paris, where the Commodities & Capital Allocation Forum will examine risk pricing, insurance and export credit support.
Under Kenya's $311 million public-private partnership (PPP), a consortium of pan-African infrastructure investor Africa50 and Power Grid Corporation of India will finance, build and operate approximately 250 km of 400 kV and 220 kV lines in western and northern Kenya over 30 years. State-owned Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO) will make availability-based payments to the consortium, linking revenue directly to line performance and insulating it from fluctuations in electricity demand.
The structure also provides KETRACO with an additional financing channel for its expansion program. The company plans 8,000 km of new lines over 20 years at an estimated cost of $5 billion, or about $250 million a year, of which traditional funding sources cover only a fraction. Its 2024-2043 master plan identifies 14 transmission projects as candidates for PPP delivery.
By pairing a pan-African investor with India's largest transmission utility, the Kenyan transaction demonstrates the model's capacity to bring international capital into African grids. South Africa is applying a similar structure at greater scale, with the first phase of its Independent Transmission Projects (ITP) program covering 1,164 km of 400 kV lines across seven corridors and a combined investment value of about $1 billion. The lines are expected to connect 3,222 MW of additional renewable generation, and seven international-led consortia prequalified to bid in December 2025.
Payment security for the program relies on the Credit Guarantee Vehicle (CGV), established with World Bank Group support to back payments to private transmission owners in place of a government guarantee. The CGV was incorporated on August 12, 2026, and a binding term sheet is targeted for the end of the first quarter of 2027. The final request for proposals is scheduled for the second quarter, placing the release of bid documents in the same quarter as IAE 2027 this May.
Private transmission investment is also extending to cross-border lines. In October 2026, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) Strategic Investment Fund, power trader EnPower, Trafigura and Gridworks Development Partners signed an agreement to build and operate the $300 million, 200 km Kalumbila-Kolwezi Interconnector. The project will link Zambia's grid with the DRC's Copperbelt. Gridworks will serve as lead equity investor, and the project is anchored by mining offtake, giving lenders a commercial source of payment security alongside utility-backed models. Together with KETRACO's PPP pipeline and South Africa's ITP program, such transactions are establishing a track record international investors can use to assess African transmission risk.
Scaling the model across the continent will require lenders and insurers prepared to take long-term exposure to African grid assets. At IAE 2027, the Ministerial Capital Roundtable will convene African energy ministers on the regulatory and fiscal conditions needed to mobilize investment at scale, alongside the insurers, export credit agencies and financial institutions attending the Commodities & Capital Allocation Forum on May 13.
Organized by Energy Capital & Power, Invest in African Energy 2027 takes place May 11–13 in Paris. To learn more about IAE 2027 and register as a delegate, visit invest-africa-energy.com.