From October 28 to 30, 2026, Cotonou is hosting the 12th African Think Tanks Summit (#ATTS2026), a high-stakes gathering where policymakers, development partners, and African experts confront a critical challenge: transforming Africa’s struggling energy sector into a driver of economic progress. This year’s summit spotlights how unreliable electricity doesn’t just light homes—it can make or break businesses, inflate costs, and stall industrialization across the continent.
The harsh economic cost of energy poverty in Africa
Across African cities, manufacturers, farmers, and small businesses face a common barrier to growth: unstable, insufficient, or unaffordable electricity. While access to power is improving, many businesses still endure daily blackouts that disrupt production, raise operational costs, and erode competitiveness. This energy crisis doesn’t just affect the formal economy—it limits job creation in manufacturing hubs, hampers agricultural productivity, and keeps millions of entrepreneurs from scaling up their operations.
How unreliable power chokes entrepreneurial growth
- Manufacturers lose millions in lost production time and damaged goods due to voltage fluctuations and unplanned outages.
- Agricultural businesses struggle with refrigeration and irrigation systems, reducing food security and export potential.
- Service sectors, like healthcare and education, face operational disruptions that compromise quality and accessibility for citizens.
- Foreign investors hesitate when energy infrastructure fails to meet basic reliability standards, slowing industrialization.
Cotonou’s energy summit: pushing beyond mere electrification
The summit, organized by the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) in partnership with Benin’s government and the African Union Commission, goes beyond counting new power connections. Its core focus is turning energy access into tangible economic benefits. The central question driving discussions: How can Africa ensure that every kilowatt of electricity contributes to jobs, innovation, and sustained economic growth?
As Aristide Médenou, Benin’s Minister of Economy and Finance in charge of Cooperation, emphasized during the opening ceremony, “Energy investments must deliver measurable impact—not just on the grid, but on economic transformation.” This shift in focus signals a move away from purely technical solutions toward policies that support productive use of electricity, regional industrial integration, and inclusive economic development.
From policy to impact: aligning energy reforms with economic goals
The summit’s agenda is packed with solutions aimed at closing the gap between energy availability and its productive use:
- Linking energy to industrial output: Encouraging governments to design policies that prioritize electricity for manufacturing, agro-processing, and digital services.
- Cost efficiency for businesses: Exploring tariff reforms and subsidies that reduce energy costs for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
- Resilient infrastructure: Promoting off-grid and mini-grid solutions in rural and peri-urban areas to power local economies beyond national grids.
The institutional backbone: enabling reforms to deliver real change
Mamadou Biteye, Executive Secretary of ACBF, highlighted a critical reality: “No energy reform succeeds without strong institutions.” Without the capacity to design, implement, and monitor effective policies, even well-funded projects can fail to deliver results. This year’s summit emphasizes institutional strengthening as key to making energy policies work for people and businesses.
Key priorities include:
- Regulatory clarity: Clear governance frameworks to attract private investment while protecting consumer interests.
- Coordination among actors: Streamlining collaboration between governments, utilities, investors, and local governments to ensure energy policies align with economic development goals.
- Performance-based financing: Developing funding models that tie financial support to verifiable outcomes, such as increased industrial output or job creation.
Local impact: when energy reaches the streets and markets
For mayors like Luc Gnacadja of Cotonou, the stakes are local—and immediate. Reliable electricity powers essential urban services: street lighting enhances safety, refrigeration preserves food supplies, and consistent power supports small businesses that fuel community livelihoods. “Energy is not just a national issue,” Gnacadja noted. “It’s a daily lifeline for families, entrepreneurs, and city economies.”
The summit’s discussions on decentralized energy solutions and urban energy governance reflect this grassroots perspective, ensuring that reform efforts address the needs of cities and communities where economic life thrives.
What’s next? Turning summit debates into action
As the 12th African Think Tanks Summit draws to a close, the challenge remains clear: energy must move from being a limiting factor to a catalyst for economic transformation. Participants are expected to leave Cotonou with concrete proposals—reforms, financing models, and institutional roadmaps—that national governments and regional bodies can adopt to make energy a driver of growth, not a barrier.
The summit’s legacy will be measured not in the number of memoranda signed, but in the number of businesses that run smoothly, the jobs created, and the communities that thrive because reliable, affordable electricity powers their daily lives.