Eastern African countries are accelerating cross-border electricity trade under a $1.6bn World Bank-backed integration programme, with Ethiopia preparing to double power exports to Kenya even as the region’s long-delayed Day-Ahead Market remains stalled.

Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) said on September 16, reporting on the conclusion of a two-day Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP) consultative forum held in Addis Ababa on September 14-15, that exports to Kenya are expected to rise to 400 megawatts (MW) from 200 MW in December. A joint technical committee is overseeing trial operations and grid-stability preparations before the increase.

Ethiopia is also supplying 100 MW to Tanzania on a pilot basis, with regular exports expected after upgrades to the Kenya-Tanzania transmission network are completed. EEP said its electricity exports had increased 31% over the past decade and now account for between 6.5% and 10% of national generation.

Ethiopia is targeting 5,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of annual electricity exports by 2030 and is planning new cross-border transmission links with South Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland, alongside additional corridors involving Djibouti and Sudan, according to EEP.

The latest trading plans come as the 10-year Regional Energy Transmission, Trade and Decarbonization Programme for Eastern Africa (RETRADE-EA), approved by the World Bank Group in June, moves into implementation. The programme will finance cross-border transmission and market reforms intended to increase regional electricity trade and connect countries still outside the main grid, including Somalia.

EAPP ministers selected Egypt in April as the permanent headquarters of the regional electricity market operator, but the market has yet to launch. Ethiopian Electric Power chief executive and EAPP Steering Committee chairman Ashebir Balcha said in an August interview that the power pool was “currently in a dispute”, while Capital Ethiopia reported continuing governance and technical disagreements around the market’s operation.

The World Bank casts RETRADE-EA as a way to make greater use of surplus and low-cost clean power through cross-border trade. “RETRADE will help countries trade power across borders, lowering costs and improving reliability for businesses and households,” said Ndiamé Diop, the bank's regional vice president for Eastern and Southern Africa, when the programme was approved in June. “In doing so, it delivers exactly what Mission 300 is designed for: stronger energy systems that provide access at scale, drive job creation, and sharpen Africa's competitiveness.”

RETRADE-EA forms part of Mission 300, the World Bank and African Development Bank initiative targeting first-time electricity access for 300 mn Africans by 2030. More than 50 mn people across 40 countries had been connected by June, though more than 560 mn people in Sub-Saharan Africa still lacked electricity in 2024, according to the latest Tracking SDG7 report.

Uganda-Tanzania link anchors first phase

The first phase is built around the Uganda-Tanzania Interconnector Project (UTIP), backed by $250mn in concessional financing from the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA). It will build about 260 kilometres of 400-kV double-circuit transmission line from Wobulenzi through Masaka to Mutukula on the Tanzanian border, with transfer capacity of around 1,000 MW.

The rationale is Uganda's growing surplus. The country ended 2025 with 2,098.2 MW of installed capacity — 95.2% of it renewable and 82.1% hydropower, according to its Electricity Regulatory Authority — and at times generates more electricity than domestic demand can absorb. With plants such as Karuma, Isimba and Bujagali lifting output ahead of consumption, export markets are becoming central to using those assets and earning revenue from surplus power.

“Uganda has abundant clean energy, and this project turns that advantage into real economic opportunity,” Diop said.

By 2031, electricity exchanges between Uganda and Tanzania are expected to reach at least 452 GWh a year. Wider use of Ugandan hydropower across the EAPP is projected to displace costlier thermal generation and avoid about 25.8 mn tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the World Bank.

Regional trading capacity

Alongside the physical links, a $10mn IDA grant and $3.5mn from the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program will fund the EAPP's Regional Power Trade and Market Project, which aims to lift cross-border exchanges above 5,000 GWh a year by 2031.

“By completing the remaining regional interconnections and operationalizing the Eastern Africa Power Pool Day-Ahead Market, RETRADE-EA will help realize a fully operational regional power pool,” EAPP Secretary General James Karari Wahogo said.

The pool's 13 members — Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda — remain unevenly integrated, with some already trading while others remain outside the main network.

The Tanzania-Zambia Interconnector, now under implementation, is intended to link the EAPP with the Southern African Power Pool, creating a transmission corridor capable of supporting electricity trade from Cape Town to Cairo.

Private capital in the frame

RETRADE-EA also leans on private money. Independent Transmission Projects would allow private investors to finance, build and operate high-voltage lines traditionally developed by state utilities, easing pressure on public budgets.

Mission 300 estimates that roughly half the financing required under its 36 National Energy Compacts will have to come from private investors.

The near-term test is whether that investment, together with the new transmission links and market rules, can translate into higher and more reliable cross-border electricity flows.