Regulating Public Utilities Within a Crisis Situation in Africa

The world has recently been hit by some major crises that have forced leaders to review certain decisions taken for the good of their population and the world at large. These crises (some natural and others manmade) have affected the socio-political, economic, legal, and technological components of most, if not all of the countries in the world. The most recent of these crises are those of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The COVID-19 health crisis imposed the need for readjustment in our pattern of living, limiting the movement of goods and persons, and the closure of businesses and offices, with large numbers of deaths registered around the world. The entire world was brought to a halt as people watched helplessly, how the lives of their loved ones and family members were switched off. To this was added the Russian–Ukraine crisis, which brought with it high rates of inflation, increase in oil and gas prices thereby causing an increase in the cost of living. Prior to 2020, African Countries were among the fastest growing in the world. Unfortunately, these crises have reversed decades of hard-won macroeconomics, socioeconomics, and governance gains on the continent. Speaking at the U.S. Institute of Peace on 14 June, 2022, Ahunna Aziakonwa (U.N. Assistant Secretary General) said, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has put households, communities, and countries across Africa in a very precarious situation. Within this context of health and economic crises hitting the world, how have African countries been able to manage the regulation of public utilities? In most of these African countries, internal political, economic, and social unrests add up to these global crises to even worsen the impact on the population, especially as the purchasing power of most families in African countries is still very low. This article shall therefore bring to light the challenges faced by African public utility regulators (especially those within the energy sector) in managing the utilities they regulate. It shall focus on the solutions adopted by these regulators, to ensure a continuous supply of these utilities to the population at a reasonable tariff, without compromising the business interests of the operators within the regulated sectors.