The African Development Bank has approved $503.75 million for South Africa’s Infrastructure Governance Reform Program, aimed at drawing private capital into electricity transmission, as a licensed market operator inside the National Transmission Company South Africa prepares the ground for 10% of electricity transactions to be traded wholesale by December 2027.
A $503.75 million loan approved by the African Development Bank for South Africa’s Infrastructure Governance Reform Program, coordinated by National Treasury with development partners, is aimed at drawing private capital into electricity transmission and rail equipment, the Bank said, and backs reform of South Africa’s electricity market that has already put a licensed market operator inside the National Transmission Company South Africa (NTCSA).
Under the electricity reforms, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) has issued the market operator licence to the operator within NTCSA, and a Market Surveillance and Competition Unit will oversee trading, in a move to reduce Eskom’s role as the sole buyer and seller of power. Grid capacity allocation rules will set how generators connect, and the government is aiming for wholesale trading to account for 10% of electricity transactions by December 2027.
Beyond the grid, the programme covers freight rail, where the Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager allocates train paths across 21,232km of track and awarded at least 11 slots on six corridors to private operators in August 2025, and the port of Durban, where a 25-year concession for Durban Container Terminal Pier 2, which handles about 46% of the country’s container traffic, was signed with International Container Terminal Services in December 2025.
The loan follows $300 million under the Bank’s 2023 Energy Governance and Climate Resilience Support Program, which supported Eskom’s financial stability and the creation of NTCSA, and about $475 million under the 2025 Infrastructure Governance and Green Growth Program, taking the Bank’s support for South Africa’s reforms since 2023 above $1.2 billion.
Images: AfDB
Source: energy-news-network.com
