Beldine Wakajummah | Why the Power Sector Regulation Course Matters for Africa’s Shared Energy Goals

Beldine Wakajummah, from the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) in Kenya, reflects on the Power Sector Regulation in Africa course. Beldine works in strategy and planning, aligning the organisation’s objectives with international, regional and national goals and tracking progress through monitoring and evaluation. Beldine rates the online component eight or nine out of ten. It was intensive and well structured, with self-paced expert videos, weekly submissions, quizzes and discussion forums. The forums stood out because participants could probe how other countries approach the same topics and have their own country’s approach challenged in return. At the in-person week in Accra, Beldine put faces to names and heard views from regulators, utilities and industry associations, not only from the regulator’s side. Two lessons stuck. One was Nigeria’s service-based tariff, where a locality can determine how many hours of electricity it receives each day. The other was Ghana’s consumer protection framework, where customers can be compensated for poor service. For Beldine, the course matters because Africa shares a vision of a single electricity market and universal access, and it gives regulators a common foundation. The advice to future applicants is to apply right away, but to come ready to take part actively.