The power sector’s record of delivering services in Sub-Saharan Africa (Africa) has been Sub-optimal. Generation capacity remains at 100 gigawatts (GW)—one-third of India’s, with a similar population—and an average annual per capita consumption of about 500 kilowatt-hours (kWh), one-fifth of the global average. Electricity is consumed almost exclusively by the affluent. Close to two-thirds of Africa’s population–largely rural and poor—are left out of the service delivery paradigm, with adverse consequences on socioeconomic welfare and economic productivity. This reality is at odds with the rising aspirations of the international community and national governments to to reach every consumer with reliable, affordable and sustainable energy solutions by 2030. Bridging the gap between where Africa is and where Africa aspires to be will require a confluence of new business models, new financiers, and new stakeholders in order to increase its capacity to generate electricity, and to build distribution networks capable of delivering it to consumers, as well as transmission lines to link the two ends of the power supply chain. Generation and distribution, the two ends of the sector value chain, have received more attention from policy makers and financiers as they experiment with new ways of procuring generation capacity, as well as more efficient ways of delivering service to consumers. Independent Power Producers (IPPs) have made investments in generation of US$25.6 billion, with an installed capacity of 11 GW. In distribution, new models of harnessing private sector efficiencies have emerged in various forms of private-public partnerships (PPPs), as well as in concessions, management contracts, operations and maintenance contracts and so on.