Studies & Reports

Clean cooking remains one of Africa’s most pressing development challenges, and one of the most solvable. Around 1 billion people in Africa still cook with polluting fuels – half of the global total – and their number is still rising. Women and children bear the brunt. Yet universal access by around 2040 would require around USD 2 billion a year in Africa, a small fraction of global energy investment.

The African energy sector is transforming rapidly but continues to face significant skills and capacity gaps that limit collaboration and sustainable growth. To bridge these disparities, the African Energy Commission (AFREC) has developed a strategic framework for cross-border cooperation in knowledge and expertise exchange.

The Africa Sustainable Development Goal 7 Report (2025) finds that while Africa has made measurable progress toward universal access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy, the continent remains off track to meet SDG7 targets by 2030. Electricity access rose from 51 percent in 2017 to 61 percent in 2023, yet over 560 million people—mainly in rural and peri-urban areas—still lack electricity, with stark regional disparities and population growth eroding gains.

This report explores the Eastern Africa region’s potential to leverage its significant oil and gas resources to achieve regional climate objectives, energy security, sustainable development and
economic growth through promoting intra-regional trade and ensuring a just energy transition. The focus countries for this region are the following: Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. By developing reserves and promoting intra-regional trade via strategic investments in

Over the past decade, the ECOWAS region has recorded a steady rise in Total Final Energy Consumption (TFEC), growing at an average annual rate of 3.85%, in line with the region’s economic expansion. In 2022, TFEC reached 129,871 ktoe, representing 23.5% of Africa’s total, with Nigeria accounting for 56.2% of regional consumption. Biomass remains dominant, constituting 60% of the energy mix, followed by petroleum products (33.1%) and electricity (5.5%).