Electricity is a basic need and a prerequisite for development. Why are 1.6 billion people still living without electricity, in spite of available technical solutions and sufficient money?
Based on the experience of a private energy provider in rural Western Africa, the article describes the gaps between developed energy strategies and their implementation and between component supplies and their operation. It names the main types of competitors private investors are facing, the risks they have to take and the difficulties in finding find stable financing.
How can the situation improve? Readers find proposals for fair competition and sustainable commitment to changing ways of financing and subsidising private rural electrification activities, and how partnerships between foreign investors and target-country organisations could be established in long-term business models.

Wolfgang Hofstätter
CEO - Kaïto Energie AG
Munich, Germany
w.hofstaetter@kaito-energie.de