5 bulk metering was introduced for micro and small enterprises in 2009 and pre‐payment meters for households in 2012. An analysis of the bulk metering program by Never (2015) indicated that although this approach improved bill collection, there were still problems of theft and inability to pay.

This paper is part of a broader study examining the financial viability and related aspects of the power sector in Africa. The broader study focuses primarily on grid electricity for reasons of data availability at the regional level. The study examines quasi‐fiscal deficits—difference between the total cost of providing electricity and total cash collected by utilities—in 39 countries (Trimble et al. 2016), tariff structures in 39, and household use of electricity in 22.<sup>4</sup> The component on household use of electricity, which is the subject of this paper, takes household expenditure surveys to gain a better understanding of who uses electricity, what type of electricity, and how much. It asks the following questions:

- How widely is electricity used?

- What are the barriers to making electricity the main source of energy in Africa for lighting and powering appliances?

- Is electricity affordable?

- Is there potential evidence suggesting that female‐headed households are disadvantaged in some ways with respect to electricity use?

Although household expenditure surveys capture spending on all forms of electricity, as with the broader study, detailed analysis is carried out primarily on issues associated with grid connection.

# Scope and Methodology

The household expenditure surveys analyzed in this paper were carried out in 2008 or later. The survey period and the sample size are summarized in Table A.1 in the annex. This paper reports results calculated using household weights or population weights, depending on whether percentages of households or people are being examined. The only exception is when the sample size is discussed, primarily to point out that the number of households being interviewed was too small for meaningful results (for example, the number of rural households in the bottom 40 percent connected to the grid). In each country, people are divided into quintiles based on per capita expenditures, with quintile 1 being the poorest and quintile 5 being the richest. Per capita expenditures are derived from consumption aggregates used to construct official poverty measures.<sup>5</sup> Poverty measurements are based on real expenditures, either per capita or per adult equivalent, except in Botswana where nominal values are used. Each quintile has the same number of people, not households. Because household size typically declines with increasing wealth, and because the rich tend to be concentrated in urban areas, upper quintiles have more households than lower quintiles and are more urban than rural. The results are analyzed by consumption quintile, households’ poverty status (poor or non‐ poor based on the official poverty measures), location (urban or rural), and gender of the head of household. Where official poverty is based on per capita expenditure, the bottom quintile is always poor, but where poverty is based on expenditure per adult equivalent, the overlap between the poor and the bottom quintile

> 4 The 39 countries are not identical. Non‐overlapping countries between the components are Angola, Chad, and Namibia in the tariff analysis and the Central Africa Republic, the Republic of Congo, and Sudan in the analysis of quasi‐ fiscal deficits. Of the 22 countries with household surveys, all but Angola were analyzed for quasi‐fiscal deficits. 5 The methodology for consumption aggregation for the purpose of defining poverty varies from government to government, and therefore quintiles are not strictly comparable across countries because what is included in consumption aggregates is not the same.