Energy Ministers' Dialogue
Session Overview
Energy ministers from twelve African countries convene in roundtable format under the chairship of Dr. Naledi Khumalo. The session is moderated by Dr. Beatrice Mwangi and structured around five thematic prompts circulated to ministers ahead of time.
Discussion centres on the political-economy bottlenecks slowing utility turnaround and grid extension: tariff politics, off-balance-sheet IPP arrangements, the role of regional power pools, and the legal architecture required for cross-border trade. Ministers share concrete reform pipelines and the specific obstacles they have encountered.
The session produces a short text — the Ministers' Communiqué — that is folded into the Summit Communiqué adopted on Day 3. Delegates leave with sharper sense of which reforms are politically tractable in 2026–2027 and which require regional or continental coordination to move at all.
Key Topics
- Tariff reform and political feasibility
- IPP and PPP arrangements at scale
- Regional power pools and cross-border trade
- Utility commercial viability and balance-sheet repair
- Roadmap to the Day 3 Summit Communiqué
Speaker
Dr. Naledi Khumalo
Director of Development Finance, Southern African Development Bank
Dr. Naledi Khumalo directs the Development Finance practice at the Southern African Development Bank, where she leads the institution's climate-aligned investment portfolio and the Just Transition Africa programme. Her work bridges public finance and private climate capital across the SADC region.
Dr. Beatrice Mwangi
Editor-in-Chief, African Policy Review
Dr. Beatrice Mwangi is Editor-in-Chief of the African Policy Review and a Senior Fellow at the Nairobi-based Institute for Policy Analysis and Research. She leads editorial work that translates African policy research into accessible briefings for ministers, parliamentarians, and the public.
Session Materials
- PRESENTATION SLIDESAvailable after session
- VIDEO RECORDINGAvailable after session