SA leads on big solar; neighbours win on offgrid PayGo – Citi’s Amusin sees light in Africa’s energy future

To reduce poverty in Africa, there are very few silver bullets. Yet energy access is emerging as a rare bright spot, says Eugene Amusin, Head of Strategy and Global Solutions for Social Finance at Citi. He told BizNews in an interview that offgrid solar and payasyougo (PayGo) models are scaling faster than any other energy solution and are transforming rural lives across the continent. Citi is helping mobilise private capital for Mission 300, the World Bank and African Development Bank initiative to connect 300 million people to electricity by 2030, including a landmark $156 million securitisation for Sun King, in Kenya that has drawn new investors into the sector. Amusin says South Africa’s success in industrial scale solar offers lessons for the continent, while South Africa itself could learn from its neighbours’ rapid expansion of offgrid household systems, still needed by around 10% of homes in the country. – Linda van Tilburg.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..Watch here.Listen here.Edited transcript of the interview.(00:00) Linda van TilburgIf you look at global access to electricity, SubSaharan Africa still lags far behind the rest of the world. Mission 300 — led by the World Bank and the African Development Bank — aims to close that gap by connecting 300 million people to electricity by 2030. Supporting that effort is global bank Citi. Joining us is Eugene Amusin, Head of Strategy and Global Solutions for Social Finance at Citi, to explore what progress is being made in the region’s energy landscape.In Citi’s recent Public Sector Perspectives, you describe offgrid energy solutions in Africa as a bright spot. What is the most encouraging shift you’re seeing right now?(01:20) Eugene AmusinThank you for that question. It is a bright spot, for a few reasons. When we think about access to essential services in SubSaharan Africa — water, sanitation, healthcare — there are still big gaps. Those gaps are being filled slowly and unevenly. But energy access is the one area where we’re seeing steady progress, and not just in one country but across the region. That’s encouraging.What’s also interesting is that the business models driving this progress didn’t exist 10 or 15 years ago. We’re seeing the startup and venture ecosystem in SubSaharan Africa really proving itself. Successful models are now being replicated across borders, which is difficult because every country’s environment is different. So there are genuinely a lot of bright spots in the energy access space.(02:45) Linda van TilburgSo is it offgrid solutions that are proving the most promising?(02:49) Eugene AmusinYes. Offgrid solutions — systems that don’t connect to the national grid — are scaling the fastest and expanding access the quickest. Even if you could generate enough power centrally, extending the grid to remote communities requires huge investment in transmission lines. Those communities are often far apart and sparsely populated, so the economics simply don’t work. That’s why offgrid solutions make the most sense.(03:49) Linda van TilburgFor many families in SubSaharan Africa, unlocking capital for local solar suppliers is difficult. In practical terms, what does support look like on the ground?(04:02) Eugene AmusinThis is where a lot of innovation has happened — both in business models and in financing instruments. The model that has really taken root is payasyougo.Take Sun King, a company we’ve worked with extensively. They design the products, distribute them through their branch networks and agents, and they also finance them. Households can’t afford to buy these systems upfront, so they pay a deposit and then pay as they go — daily or weekly. After roughly an 18month contract, they own the asset, which gives them lighting and often other basic appliances like phone charging, a fan, a radio, or even a TV.This isn’t a typical business model, and it requires these companies to finance households at scale. That’s where securitisation comes in. We’ve completed several securitisations in Kenya for Sun King, including the largest securitisation outside South Africa on the continent — a local currency deal equivalent to $156 million. Instruments like this create scale, attract other investors, and deepen local capital markets.(06:19) Linda van TilburgYou mentioned South Africa. Its solar boom has been extraordinary. What lessons can the rest of the continent learn from that experience?(06:28) Eugene AmusinIt actually goes both ways. South Africa has done a strong job creating policy for industrial scale solar, which has driven a significant increase in gigawattlevel capacity.Elsewhere on the continent, the most tangible progress has been in residential solar home systems rather than industrial scale projects — although we’re starting to see movement there too. So the rest of the continent can look to South Africa for lessons on enabling industrial scale solar. And South Africa can look to its neighbours for how to better support offgrid households. Around 10% of South African households are still not connected to the grid, so there’s room to expand offgrid access.(07:40) Linda van TilburgWhat are the biggest challenges in rolling this out? In South Africa, it took years for government to enable it through regulation. Is that the case across Africa?(07:53) Eugene AmusinChallenges vary by country. In some places, the basic business environment isn’t enabling enough for private sector companies to enter, even if large populations are offgrid. They may lack the policy or legal frameworks that give companies confidence to invest.Where we’ve seen the most traction — and where lessons can be learned — is in countries partnering with Mission 300 and creating results based financing programmes. These programmes incentivise companies like Sun King to enter markets they might otherwise avoid or enter more slowly. This approach is working particularly well in Nigeria and Uganda, where solar expansion is accelerating right now.(09:30) Linda van TilburgAre there other energy sources, apart from solar, that look promising?(09:30) Eugene AmusinWe’re seeing a range of energy sources across the continent. Kenya, for example, is largely powered by geothermal energy. Zambia has historically relied on hydropower, although recent droughts have created challenges. So it really comes down to building a mix of sources to ensure resilience.Solar is the one truly universal resource in SubSaharan Africa. There’s abundant sunlight, and the cost of solar and battery storage has fallen significantly, making it viable even when the sun isn’t shining. But different countries have different natural resources, so the goal is a diversified energy mix that provides longterm stability.(11:05) Linda van TilburgMission 300 aims to connect 300 million of the 675 million people who still lack electricity. Is that ambition realistic, and what kind of effort would it take to close this gap?(11:21) Eugene AmusinMission 300 works because it brings together multilateral institutions, local governments, and the private sector. But governments are really the tip of the spear here. As part of Mission 300, they’re developing national compacts that outline how they’ll expand electricity access to populations currently without it. That’s then supported by funding from the World Bank and the African Development Bank, and mobilised by private sector partners like us.Is it realistic? Yes. Is it a huge amount of work? Absolutely. It takes all these actors working together. And even if Mission 300 succeeds, more than 300 million people will still be without electricity. So you could ask whether the ambition is high enough. But we have to be practical and take it step by step. The momentum so far is promising.(12:47) Linda van TilburgApart from the obvious benefits to SubSaharan Africa of giving everyone electricity, what would the rest of the world gain if Africa succeeds in closing this energy access gap?(13:01) Eugene AmusinIn development, there are very few silver bullets. Poverty is complex, and it’s rare to find one intervention that transforms everything. But energy access comes close. The co benefits are well documented. It’s not just about having lights in the house. Lights allow children to study after dark. They allow shopkeepers to stay open longer. They allow health facilities and schools to function properly. These improvements ripple across entire economies.Energy access fuels economic growth. Without it, economies are constrained. The faster and more productively African countries can grow, the better it is not only for those countries but for the world.(14:34) Linda van TilburgSo why did Citi become involved in this?(14:41) Eugene AmusinFor Citi, it’s a natural fit. We’ve been in Africa for more than 70 years. We had a branch in the DRC before we had one in Connecticut — which is remarkable for an American bank. We’re embedded in these markets, and our clients include governments, financial institutions, corporates, and multinationals. Supporting energy access is part of doing business responsibly and adding value to the societies and communities where we operate.

SA leads on big solar; neighbours win on offgrid PayGo – Citi’s Amusin sees light in Africa’s energy future

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