The productive use of energy (PUE) has become a critical focus in the evolving energy access strategy in Africa, with experts urging a shift from mere connections to meaningful impact that drives socio-economic resilience.
Panelists discussing Scaling productive energy use at the recently concluded Enlit Africa 2025 in Cape Town highlighted the need to prioritise:
Consensus was that without productive engagement, even the most ambitious electrification plans risk falling short of their transformative ambitions.
Sarah Malm, Executive Director of GOGLA, said that “just having access to energy is not sufficient.”
“The key is that people have the opportunity to use that energy in a meaningful and impactful way.”
Malm cautioned that high connection costs, limited access to appliances and a lack of tailored financing were undercutting progress in many off-grid and underserved areas.
She stressed the need to address supply and demand.
“Consumers cannot afford to buy electricity and to buy the products that they need to power their lives and livelihoods. So we spend a lot of time looking at the financial stack, if you will, what it takes for the delivery of Tier 1, Tier 2… These are basic household-level access products.”
Malm has emphasised that delivering Tier 1 level access to the 600+ million people in Sub-Saharan Africa without electricity requires more than $21 billion – this is seven times the current capital flowing into the off-grid sector.
“Everyone wants equity, but commercial capital is too expensive. We want concessional capital, but how do we bring in the de-risking instruments, and how do we get the subsidies to both the demand and supply side… to the companies that are delivering, and to the consumers that want to access this?” she asked.
Ruth Kimani, CLASP’s Awards Manager for Clean Energy Access, said the organisation is working to build markets for off-grid appropriate appliances through financing, quality assurance and supplier engagement.
CLASP is a non-profit organisation working on appliance efficiency.
Kimani said that affordability remains a major barrier.
“As part of our market development efforts, we run programmes like the Productive Use Appliance Financing Facility, which provides procurement subsidies to companies distributing these appliances. This recognises the challenging context in which they work.”
Kimani said the benefits of quality are twofold: improved productivity and better value for consumers.
“Having good-quality products increases productivity by ensuring they are durable, reliable, and have low maintenance costs. It helps bring down the overall cost of ownership, while protecting the consumer’s investment.”
Kimani stressed that quality standards are essential to ensure appliances perform reliably, last longer, and deliver real value to users.
“One of the benefits of having good quality products is that it increases productivity by making sure that we are having durable and reliable appliances that can function and have low maintenance costs… making sure that we are also protecting the consumer investment.”
She added that CLASP’s programmes include field testing in real households and businesses, as well as longitudinal consumer surveys to assess performance and user satisfaction over time.
But despite technological progress and growing interest in the productive use agenda, the demand side continues to present mainly financial obstacles.
Patrick Mwesige, Managing Director of Kanara Solutions, highlighted the persistent challenge of affordability in many communities.
“One of the intriguing questions is… why are people not able to afford these products, these appliances that they like to use? The place of departure is that they don’t have the money to do so, and sometimes why don’t they have the money? It’s because they do not have economic engagements that actually bring this money to them.”
He referenced a pilot project in northern Uganda, where electric milling motors were introduced to a struggling mini-grid.
“We saw that the load of the mini-grid actually shifted from about 37% to the 60%… But then a different problem arose… the grid capacity had challenges in picking up this load, because it was not designed for this kind of information.”
This experience, he said, shows why PUE should not be an afterthought but a foundational component of planning.
“Can you use potential PUE loads as anchor loads, even from the planning side, so that by the time the grid is up, you are not struggling when those types of barriers come alive?”
Mwesige also called attention to the importance of regulatory alignment. He pointed to an East African country where regulators and standards agencies collaborated to set minimum requirements for appliances eligible for subsidies and public programmes.
“For you to be blacklisted from the programme is not good for you, because you will not be able to compete,” he said.
These measures are meant to protect consumers from products that prove to be of poor quality.
Behavioural change, too, plays a pivotal role.
“We’ve seen that community awareness is essential. In our work, users often preferred their diesel water pumps until we encouraged them to try electric alternatives… with their old systems kept as backup.
“Over time, attitudes changed, and they appreciated the reliability and cost-efficiency of electric options.”
He said incentives are also vital.
“For example, some mini-grid operators are now allowed to recover the cost of demonstration appliances… electric motors, fridges, and so on… used to show communities the benefits of clean energy. Other regulatory innovations include rewarding operators for connecting a certain number of productive users.”
The panellists agreed that concessional financing, policy innovation and deeper engagement with communities are needed to mitigate risks.
Looking ahead, they called for PUE to be central not only in technology deployment but also in policymaking, financing models and donor strategies.
“It is important in the energy access agenda that we include and prioritise efficient appliances… that’s the main takeaway I would like to double down on,” said Kimani.
Malm said building trust and ensuring continued access to financing are also top priorities.
“We really need to understand what [users] need and how the technology works for them. You need to make sure that the after-sales services and guarantees are there… because otherwise the trust is lost and we lose all the progress we made.”
The panelists concurred that as Africa continues to invest in electrification, it is increasingly clear that access alone is not enough. ESI
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