Mauritania’s power privatisation could fuel sector growth

From the newsletter

Mauritania has announced plans to fully privatise its power generation sector, enabling greater private sector involvement in energy infrastructure. The move marks a major policy shift, positioning private investment as a key driver of renewable energy expansion—an essential foundation for developing a robust green hydrogen economy.

• Privatisation empowers Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to accelerate wind and solar deployment, providing the low-cost, clean electricity needed for competitive green hydrogen production and long-term viability.

• Across Africa where slow-moving state utilities and underfunded power systems have stalled renewable energy growth, Mauritania’s full liberalisation is an attractive model, one where African countries take bold steps to unlock private capital for clean energy.

More details

• The Mauritanian announcement came from Energy Minister Mohamed Ould Khaled at the Invest in African Energy 2025 Forum in Paris. He noted that Mauritania’s exceptional wind and solar potential — with wind speeds exceeding 10 m/s — positions it to lead in green hydrogen, renewable-powered industrialisation, and grid expansion.

• Mauritania’s full-scale power generation liberalisation is a watershed moment for Africa’s energy transition. While peers like Morocco, Egypt, and Kenya have opened parts of their electricity sectors to private actors, Mauritania is going further, doing away with state monopoly entirely.This shift lays the groundwork for an investor-ready green hydrogen ecosystem.

• Until now, state constraints and funding gaps limited capacity expansion. Now, private capital can drive faster deployment of renewables, vital for delivering the vast energy volumes that green hydrogen production demands.

• The liberalisation also aligns Mauritania’s energy market with global investor expectations. Development finance institutions and green infrastructure funds favour private-led, de-risked environments, which can unlock concessional and blended capital for early-stage hydrogen infrastructure.

• Such development is crucial for megaprojects like the countries CWP Global’s 15 GW Aman and Chariot’s 10 GW Nour. Both are dependent on credible, bankable power infrastructure. Privatisation bolsters investor confidence by reducing political risk, ensuring long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) credibility, and enabling integrated project structures where generation and hydrogen production are tightly linked.

• However, generation reform is just one piece. Mauritania must now prioritise grid expansion and modernisation to efficiently transmit renewable power to hydrogen electrolysers and export terminals.

• Mauritania’s full liberalisation of its power generation sector is not happening in a vacuum, it sends a clear message across Africa’s energy and green hydrogen landscape. While many countries on the continent have cautiously allowed IPPs to enter the space, the northwest African nation is pioneering a complete structural shift. This boldness could push regional peers to reevaluate the pace and scope of their own reforms.

• For countries like Namibia, which boasts similar renewable energy potential and is pursuing large-scale hydrogen projects, Mauritania’s move highlights the competitive advantages of removing state bottlenecks. Namibia’s hydrogen strategy relies heavily on public-private partnerships, but it still retains centralised control in key areas. Observing how privatisation unlocks project delivery in Mauritania could prompt a deeper rethink of sector control.

• In South Africa, where state-owned Eskom has struggled with reliability and investor confidence, Mauritania’s model presents a radically different pathway. As the country slowly unbundles Eskom and expands IPP participation, full liberalisation remains politically sensitive. Still, Mauritania’s results may make it harder to ignore the efficiency gains of market-driven generation.

• For Morocco and Egypt, both leaders in renewable deployment and green hydrogen roadmaps, the comparison will be strategic rather than structural. Morocco’s public planning and private execution model has delivered results, but it remains largely centralised. Egypt, too, relies on a hybrid approach. If Mauritania’s liberalised environment accelerates investor decisions and project execution, these countries may face pressure to streamline regulatory hurdles and enhance private sector autonomy.

• Kenya, often cited for its early leadership in geothermal and wind, has also opened parts of its power sector to IPPs. However, its regulatory complexity and frequent contract renegotiations have dampened confidence. Mauritania's shift could serve as a case study in how aligning liberalisation with hydrogen-specific regulatory clarity like the Green Hydrogen Code strengthens credibility and accelerates capital inflows.

Our take

• Mauritania is rewriting the energy reform playbook in Africa. It’s not just opening up its grid—it’s unlocking investor confidence. In the continent-wide race to attract green capital, bold reforms like these could provide a decisive competitive edge.

• Success, however, hinges on more than just policy changes. Regulatory clarity, robust grid infrastructure, and strong investor protections are essential to sustain investor confidence and ensure project viability.

• African countries aiming to accelerate their clean energy transitions must adopt similarly comprehensive reforms. Only by creating stable and predictable frameworks can they fully unlock private capital and compete globally in the green energy sector.