Discover Insights
Our analysis of global health facility electrification initiatives and implementation projects revealed several compelling insights. Below are some key findings, categorized by geographic region and other healthcare electrification indicators:
By geography:
Total number of initiatives by country
The top four countries in terms of the number of completed, ongoing and planned healthcare initiatives, are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Leading this list is Nigeria with 44 initiatives, but these do not cover all the health facilities that need to be electrified. This indicates that while the country’s health facility electrification landscape is crowded with many initiatives, there is still scope for more to be launched to electrify the remaining health facilities and achieve 100 percent electrification.
In comparison, India is fifth on the list with only 13 initiatives, but these cover many more health facilities that are electrified/being electrified, thus showing a market dominated by a small number of players.
This shows that a high number of initiatives does not mean all health facilities are being electrified. As such each country and case is different, depending on a variety of market factors.
Total number of health facilities electrified by country
India has by far the largest number of health facilities electrified/being electrified at 25,663, followed by Tanzania with 3,260 facilities. This difference points to both the effort and investment going into electrifying health facilities but also the size of the country and consequently the large number of health facilities that need to be electrified.
Total number of initiatives by region
East Africa has the greatest number of healthcare electrification initiatives at 150, with significant contributions from Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. West Africa comes next, with many of its 113 initiatives set in Nigeria. South Asia, in comparison, has only 36 initiatives. This difference can be attributed to the increasing focus of donors in sub-Saharan Africa financing many smaller initiatives, given that the healthcare electrification gap is larger, and therefore the need is greater, in SSA than South Asia. While this is a positive trend, the funding gap in SSA is still larger than in South Asia.
Total number of health facilities electrified by region
South Asia leads the way with over 26,000 health facilities being electrified – nearly 25,000 of these are in India and have been/are being electrified through a single initiative. As seen in the previous graphs, this indicates the market dominated by a small number of players. The second largest region is East Africa at nearly 13,000 facilities – most of these located in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda- followed by West Africa with nearly 6,000 facilities. This contrasts with the number of initiatives by region (where East Africa has the highest number), again highlighting that a greater number of initiatives does not imply that more facilities are being electrified.
Total number of initiatives by continent
Following the trend seen in the previous graphs, Africa has more initiatives than Asia. This reflects the overall growing market in Africa, their greater need and donors' preference for providing funding to low-income countries, of which there are more in Africa than in Asia.
Total number of health facilities electrified by continent
In terms of the number of health facilities electrified, Asia leads the way with just over 27,000 (again, 25,000 of these concentrated in India) which is more than Africa, where about 20,000 facilities are being/have been electrified in total. In Sub-Saharan Africa 25,000 healthcare facilities lack access to electricity entirely, while around 70,000 health centres have an unreliable electrical supply. The 20,000 figure above is making good progress towards 100% electrification but there is still room for more effort and investment.
Other healthcare electrification indicators:
Total number of initiatives by status of engagement and size of system
The trend of installing larger system sizes continues. Of the completed initiatives, approximately 60 percent had systems of over 1 kWp capacity. In comparison, most of the ongoing initiatives and all of the planned ones are over 1 kWp. This shows that the ambition is to utilize larger systems that will increase the electrification impact, not just of individual health services or the main facilities, but also at a facility-wide scale (e.g. including staff quarters).
Types of solutions deployed
As with previous years, the technology type category is topped by stand-alone solar PV, at 69 percent, which has been the dominant technology since 2018. Though interestingly, in the last year, grid connections have risen from 9 to 17 percent, making it the second most deployed type of solution. This indicates that the national grid continues to expand at a rapid pace, particularly in certain countries and regions.
There has been a reduction in the number of community-wide mini-grids that connect a health facility, likely because health facilities may be located far enough from a community to warrant a stand-alone system instead. Another reason could be the difficult economics of including a health facility with a low ability-to-pay in an already complicated mini-grid market.
Types of solutions deployed
As with previous years, the technology type category is topped by stand-alone solar PV, at 69 percent, which has been the dominant technology since 2018. Though interestingly, in the last year, grid connections have risen from 9 to 17 percent, making it the second most deployed type of solution. This indicates that the national grid continues to expand at a rapid pace, particularly in certain countries and regions.
There has been a reduction in the number of community-wide mini-grids that connect a health facility, likely because health facilities may be located far enough from a community to warrant a stand-alone system instead. Another reason could be the difficult economics of including a health facility with a low ability-to-pay in an already complicated mini-grid market.
Types of health facilities electrified
Primary healthcare centres were the most dominant type of health facilities (27 percent) covered under different initiatives in 2023. This has been the dominant type since 2018, though numbers have dropped in recent years.
These are followed by district/referral hospitals (24 percent) and community clinics (22 percent). This shows that smaller health facilities that provide life-saving health services – particularly critical in remote areas – are still the most targeted in implementation activities. This is also in line with the fact that generally non-hospital services have lower electrification rates than hospital facilities. However, the increase in the number of district/referral hospitals electrified in the last year also shows that larger facilities are still in need of better electrification especially from an energy reliability perspective