HR 2548 RFS
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Electrify Africa Act 
of 2014’’. 
SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 
The purpose of this Act is to encourage the efforts 
of countries in sub-Saharan Africa to improve access to 
affordable and reliable electricity in Africa in order to 
unlock the potential for economic growth, job creation, 
food security, improved health, education and environ-
mental outcomes, and poverty reduction. 
SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
(1) 589,000,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa, 
or 68 percent of the population, did not have access 
to electricity, as of 2010; 
(2) in sub-Saharan Africa, electricity services 
are highly unreliable and they are at least twice as 
expensive for those with electricity access compared 
to other emerging markets; 
(3) lack of access to electricity services 
disproportionally affects women and girls, who often 
shoulder the burden of seeking sources of heat and 
light such as dung, wood or charcoal and are often 
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more exposed to the associated negative health im-
pacts. Women and girls also face an increased risk 
of assault from walking long distances to gather fuel 
sources; 
(4) access to electricity creates opportunities, 
including entrepreneurship, for people to work their 
way out of poverty; 
(5) a lack of electricity contributes to the high 
use of inefficient and often highly polluting fuel 
sources for indoor cooking, heating, and lighting 
that produce toxic fumes resulting in more than 
3,000,000 annual premature deaths from respiratory 
disease, more annual deaths than from HIV/AIDS 
and malaria in sub-Saharan Africa; 
(6) electricity access is crucial for the cold stor-
age of vaccines and anti-retroviral and other life-
saving medical drugs, as well as the operation of 
modern lifesaving medical equipment; 
(7) electricity access can be used to improve 
food security by enabling post-harvest processing, 
pumping, irrigation, dry grain storage, milling, re-
frigeration, and other uses; 
(8) reliable electricity access can provide im-
proved lighting options and information and commu-
nication technologies, including Internet access and 
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mobile phone charging, that can greatly improve 
health, social, and education outcomes, as well as 
economic and commercial possibilities; 
(9) sub-Saharan Africa’s consumer base of 
nearly one billion people is rapidly growing and will 
create increasing demand for United States goods, 
services, and technologies, but the current electricity 
deficit in sub-Saharan Africa limits this demand by 
restricting economic growth on the continent; 
(10) approximately 30 African countries face 
endemic power shortages, and nearly 70 percent of 
surveyed African businesses cite unreliable power as 
a major constraint to growth; 
(11) the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s 
work in the energy sector shows high projected eco-
nomic rates of return that translate to sustainable 
economic growth and that the highest returns are 
projected when infrastructure improvements are cou-
pled with significant legislative, regulatory, institu-
tional, and policy reforms; 
(12) in many countries, weak governance capac-
ity, regulatory bottlenecks, legal constraints, and 
lack of transparency and accountability can stifle the 
ability of private investment to assist in the genera-
tion and distribution of electricity; and 
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(13) without new policies and more effective in-
vestments in electricity sector capacity to increase 
and expand electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa, 
over 70 percent of the rural population, and 48 per-
cent of the total population, will potentially remain 
without access to electricity by 2030. 
SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
Congress declares that it is the policy of the United 
States— 
(1) in consultation with sub-Saharan African 
governments, to encourage the private sector, inter-
national community, African Regional Economic 
Communities, philanthropies, civil society, and other 
governments to promote— 
(A) the installation of at least an addi-
tional 20,000 megawatts of electrical power in 
sub-Saharan Africa by 2020 to support poverty 
reduction, promote development outcomes, and 
drive economic growth; 
(B) first-time direct access to electricity 
for at least 50,000,000 people in sub-Saharan 
Africa by 2020 in both urban and rural areas; 
(C) efficient institutional platforms with 
accountable governance to provide electrical 
service to rural and underserved areas; and 
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(D) the necessary in-country legislative, 
regulatory and policy reforms to make such ex-
pansion of electricity access possible; and 
(2) to encourage private sector and inter-
national support for construction of hydroelectric 
dams in sub-Saharan Africa that— 
(A) offer low-cost clean energy consistent 
with— 
(i) the national security interests of 
the United States; and 
(ii) best international practices re-
garding social and environmental safe-
guards, including— 
(I) engagement of local commu-
nities regarding the design, implemen-
tation, monitoring, and evaluation of 
such projects; 
(II) the consideration of energy 
alternatives, including distributed re-
newable energy; and 
(III) the development of appro-
priate mitigation measures; and 
(B) support partner country efforts. 
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