Author:
Abstract:
Ensuring reliable access to electricity is a critical issue for economic development and national security across Sub-Saharan Africa, and it is especially acute in the least-developed countries with high poverty rates. Energy deficits not only constrain industrial growth and limit access to basic social services such as healthcare and education but also deter foreign investment. The energy sector of the Central African Republic exemplifies the combination of structural challenges and unrealized opportunities found in Central Africa. International financial assistance is typically confined to isolated projects that neither address systemic bottlenecks nor reduce dependence on external suppliers of fuel and equipment. This article examines the current state of CAR’s energy sector, analyzes its key problems, and outlines potential development trajectories. It considers short- and long-term applied strategies for endogenous, exogenous, and integrative development of CAR’s energy sector based on building out energy network infrastructure, mobilizing domestic and collective capacities, and attracting strategic investors into CAR’s power industry. The paper substantiates the need for and proposes approaches to an Intersectoral Energy Strategy for CAR that would factor in the level of state agency and the use of appropriate technologies. As a priority integrative pathway, it advances an economic concept for establishing an energy hub on CAR’s territory that would generate and transmit electricity to neighboring countries.
Keywords:
energy strategy, Central African Republic, energy infrastructure, agency, energy hub, Rosatom, African energy, mobile nuclear power plants, SMR, hydroelectric power plant (HPP), thermal power plant (TPP)
DOI:
10.31132/2412-5717-2025-73-4-156-175
References:
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For citation:
Fedorov A.V., Kirikova T.N. (2025). The Energy Sector of the Central African Republic: Status, Challenges, and Prospects. Journal of the Institute for African Studies. Vol. 11. № 4. Pp. 156–175. https://doi.org/10.31132/2412-5717-2025-73-4-156-175
Для цитирования:
Федоров А.В., Кирикова Т.Н. Энергетика Центральноафриканской Республики: состояние, проблемы и перспективы. Ученые записки Института Африки РАН. 2025. Т. 11. № 4. С. 156–175. https://doi.org/10.31132/2412-5717-2025-73-4-156-175