TRACKING THE PERFORMANCE OF SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA'S POWER UTILITIES

Well-performing utilities are the foundation of any credible strategy for expanding access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable electricity. Yet across Sub-Saharan Africa, where more than half the population still lacks access to electricity and supply struggles to keep pace with demand, the data needed to understand how utilities are actually performing, and to drive the reforms needed to improve performance, has historically been scarce, inconsistent, and difficult to compare across countries. Good policy and meaningful reform require good data. Recognizing this, the World Bank hired DHInfrastructure to develop a systematic framework for measuring and tracking the performance of power utilities across the region.

DHInfrastructure developed the Utility Performance and Behavior Today (UPBEAT) framework: a comprehensive performance measurement system designed to facilitate transparent, comparable assessment of utility performance across Sub-Saharan Africa. We developed a methodology covering financial performance (cost recovery, liquidity, capital structure, and profitability), operational performance (reliability and efficiency), and transparency and accountability (performance management, integrity and internal controls, financial discipline, and stakeholder relations). We designed the framework around publicly available or easily verifiable data, ensuring that transparency was built into the system from the outset rather than treated as an afterthought. We developed data collection and database templates, validated our proposed analytical approach with both the World Bank and the Association of Power Utilities of Africa (APUA), and collected and validated data from more than 70 utilities across more than 40 countries—one of the most extensive utility performance datasets ever assembled for the region. We calculated key performance indicators for each utility across all performance dimensions and produced one-page performance summaries for each participating utility alongside regional background reports and a synthesis of overall findings.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the UPBEAT database proved its value beyond its original purpose. DHInfrastructure adapted the framework to model the financial impact of the pandemic on utility performance, developing a theory of change linking the pandemic's effects (reduced demand, collection difficulties, foreign exchange pressures, supply chain disruptions, and constrained financing) to utility financial outcomes. We developed scenarios for sensitivity analysis and compared results against a no-impact baseline, giving the World Bank a rigorous, data-driven assessment of how the pandemic was likely to affect utilities' ability to cover costs and honor their contractual obligations at a moment when that analysis was urgently needed.

The UPBEAT framework has become an established tool for tracking utility performance, maintained and updated through a dedicated website and dashboard, and expanded to cover utilities in other regions beyond Sub-Saharan Africa. By combining rigorous financial modeling, transparent performance measurement, and accessible data visualization, UPBEAT has helped shift the conversation about utility reform from aspiration to evidence, giving utility managers, policymakers, and development partners the factual foundation they need to identify where performance is falling short and what needs to change.