Leria Arinaitwe: Energy Sector Lead – ALSF South Africa
The 10th anniversary edition of African Power & Energy Elites recognises the people shaping the continent’s future infrastructure
Leria Arinaitwe, an experienced lawyer in providing transactional support for the full development cycle of energy projects, discusses the continent’s shifting transmission landscape, cross-border interconnector hurdles, bankability innovations, and the African Legal Support Facility’s (ALSF) evolving mandate in a more integrated power market.
One of the most persistent barriers to the bankability of generation projects in Africa is offtake risk. For decades, many countries operated under singlebuyer models in which financially constrained national utilities were the sole purchasers of electricity.
Predictably, this exposed private investors to the risk of delayed payments, partial payments, or in the worst cases, an inability to evacuate power altogether.
Such uncertainty has long been a major deterrent to large-scale private capital. Transmission interconnectors and regional grid upgrades are fundamentally reshaping the market by introducing diversified offtake pathways.
Rather than relying exclusively on a national utility, developers are able to structure projects on the basis of multiple offtakers, selling power through regional power pools or directly to qualified private offtakers connected via new transmission corridors. By enabling cross-border trade, facilitating private offtake arrangements, and reducing reliance on constrained utilities, transmission infrastructure sits at the heart of the continent’s strategy to mobilise private capital at scale.
We are beginning to see meaningful solutions emerge. The Southern African Power Pool (SAPP)’s Regional Transmission Infrastructure Financing Facility (RTIFF) is a promising intervention.
The ALSF is supporting SAPP in structuring a $1.3 billion target Leria Arinaitwe, an experienced lawyer in providing transactional support for the full development cycle of energy projects, discusses the continent’s shifting transmission landscape, cross-border interconnector hurdles, bankability innovations, and the ALSF’s evolving mandate in a more integrated power market.
Cover photo: Leria Arinaitwe
