Technical assistance (TA) can, at its best, be a substantial source of support to an early-stage and growing company. However, with the variety of players in the space, a complicated web of labels, approaches, providers, and focus areas has emerged. The experiences and feedback from both recipients and providers of TA are equally broad.

But TA does not always reach those that need it most, particularly locally- and womenowned companies. Visibility into a company’s capacity to absorb TA is often lacking. Companies tend to have bigger problems on their plates, making externally imposed TA an additional burden. Moreover, TA needs to differ significantly along the financing continuum, yet it is not always clear who needs what, when; and who is best positioned to deliver this support.

This raises a critical question: How can we build a TA ecosystem for the energy access space that effectively responds to individual company needs and delivers high-quality support efficiently? In other words, how do we build long-term capacity within companies (effectiveness) while delivering impact value for the funders of TA (efficiency)?

Call to action

TA needs to take a long-term view and foster understanding that TA provision is a journey. A collaborative approach is necessary in close partnership with companies, ensuring that the TA provided is genuinely responsive to their needs. Flexibility, choice, and timing are critical components of effective TA; entrepreneurs need a strong voice to select the assistance that suits them best. Empowering entrepreneurs to take the driver’s seat in their TA journeys is essential for fostering sustainable growth and capacity building, so we enable companies to provide energy access connections – and then sustain them in the long run.

The support of donors and other stakeholders committed to advancing energy access in SubSaharan Africa plays a crucial role in transforming the landscape for early-stage companies and startups in this vital sector. We invite donors, investors and TA providers to take action by prioritising the following initiatives:

1. Invest in tailored technical assistance: Recognize that companies have unique needs and put them in the driving seat, including for TA service provider selection. Keep TA engagements flexible and allow room to adjust. Consult with investors. Design and apply appropriate diagnostics tools that clearly identify company needs while avoiding fatigue. Prioritise local expertise to ensure that support is relevant and context-specific.
2. Map the TA ecosystem: Support the development of a comprehensive, open and dynamic platform (“a one-stop-shop”) that maps available technical assistance resources on a continuous basis and integrates with existing public resources. This “menu” of providers, funders and managers of TA will empower early-stage companies to easily identify and access the support they need, fostering greater efficiency and impact.
3. Foster collaboration: Encourage partnerships among TA providers, investors, and businesses. Collaboration enhances resource efficiency, minimises duplication of efforts, and builds a robust network for the continuous exchange of expertise and lessons learned. Donors and development partners play a crucial role as connectors to facilitate knowledge sharing and resource pooling, ultimately strengthening the entire ecosystem.
4. Incorporate feedback mechanisms and KPIs: Define appropriate KPIs for TA engagements while maintaining flexibility with feedback loops between TA providers and recipients. This will ensure that the services offered are continuously refined based on real-world experiences and challenges faced by companies, and that the right service providers continue to be engaged.
5. Emphasise long-term capacity: Focus on building the long-term capacity of companies rather than providing short-term fixes. While there is a space for short-term engagements to fix clearly defined gaps in a company (especially at the very early stages), ensuring that short-term TA is followed up with the necessary resourcing to ensure implementation is crucial to ensure that TA deliverables do not end up in the virtual desk drawer. 1

Excerpt of: Building an Effective Technical Assistance Ecosystem to Further Clean Energy Access (EEP Africa 2025)

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