By Deborah Olaoluwa
Hundreds of millions of Africans still live without electricity, relying on kerosene, candles and firewood. The cost is measured in stalled growth, missed opportunities, and about 700,000 preventable deaths each year. Can stronger policies, fairer financing and new technologies finally turn the tide?
The oft-quoted figure, 600 million Africans without electricity, has become alarmingly familiar. Repeated in reports and conferences, it risks triggering stats fatigue. Yet in homes, hospitals and businesses, the effects remain painfully visible.
Families burn kerosene lamps, exposing children to toxic fumes. Nurses struggle to refrigerate vaccines, power incubators or ensure safe deliveries during blackouts. Traders lose goods as freezers thaw, while shopkeepers are forced to close at dusk.
The World Health Organization estimates indoor air pollution from polluting fuels kills 3.2 million people globally each year, including more than 237,000 children under five. In Africa, the toll is about 700,000 annually, from pneumonia, heart disease, chronic respiratory illness, stroke and lung cancer.
The burden is heaviest in Nigeria, where more than 80 million people lack power, the largest number worldwide. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia add another 130 million between them. Together, these three countries account for nearly a third of Africans still living in the dark.
Without electricity, hopes for value-added manufacturing, jobs, and competitive exports remain out of reach.
For Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and UN Special Representative for Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), the first hurdle is policy and finance. She underscored the need for robust national frameworks and concessional financing to back them.
“At SEforAll, one of the key shifts has been moving from commitments to actual implementation,” she said, stressing the need to translate pledges into results. In collaboration with the UN Energy, SEforALL tracks progress each year, from new EV charging stations to broader electrification gains and their impact.
Ms Ogunbiyi emphasised that while the transition will be gradual for many countries, Africa must “seize the opportunity” to build a greener energy future from the ground up.
That opportunity, however, is slipping away. Claver Gatete, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), has often lamented that the continent receives less than 3 per cent of global energy investment despite holding 60 per cent of the world’s solar potential.
“The financing gap threatens to leave Africa locked into short-term fixes rather than long-term solutions,” Mr Gatete warned.
Robert Lisinge, Director of Technology, Innovation, Connectivity and Infrastructure at ECA, said the Commission works with the African Union, SADC and other bodies to shape frameworks such as the Continental Energy Security Policy and the SADC Just Energy Transition Policy. The aim, he said, is to align national strategies with the SDGs andAgenda 2063, while ensuring Africa’s energy priorities are not sidelined in global debates.
But it’s not all gloomy across Africa. Kenya has made commendable and replicable strides, generating more than 80 per cent of its power from renewables. Morocco’s Noor Ouarzazate complex is also worthy of note; it is often cited among the world’s largest solar facilities.
Nuclear energy is also part of Africa’s energy debate. Mr Lisinge noted that more than 20 countries are considering small modular and micro reactors as options for rural electrification. The technology remains controversial, with doubts over cost, safety and waste.
However, advocates point out that countries such as France and Canada have long used nuclear power as a reliable source of low-carbon power and argue that, with proper regulation, it could complement renewables and provide the stable baseload Africa needs for growth.
Some African private companies are also positioning themselves to help bridge the continent’s energy gap. Osayande Igiehon, Chief Executive Officer of Heirs Energies, said the firm is working to make existing oil and gas assets cleaner and more efficient while expanding renewable projects. Alongside reducing emissions, he said, projects are designed to bring jobs, schools, clinics and roads to local communities.
Mr Igiehon explained that the company’s wider strategy is to expand across the energy chain, while steadily building its renewables portfolio. Hydrocarbons, he noted, still meet today’s demand, but renewables must carry tomorrow’s growth.
Equally important are the contributions of young Africans across the continent, from Kenya and Kigali to Ghana and Nigeria, who are developing local solutions to expand access, from solar start-ups to community-led clean energy projects.
Closing Africa’s power gap will shape the pace of industrialisation, the strength of the AfCFTA, and the credibility of Agenda 2063. Above all, it will determine whether millions continue to die needlessly from energy poverty, or whether Africa seizes the chance to power a more equitable and sustainable future.
Damilola Ogunbiyi, Robert Lisinge and Osayande Igiehon were all interviewed for the latest episode of ECA’sSustainable Africa Series.
