Africa remains one of the world’s leastdeveloped regions, recording poor performance on several human development indicators. One major contributing factor is its extremely low per capita energy consumption, which remains among the lowest globally. In 2024, Africa’s per capita energy consumption was only about 19 per cent of the global average and less than 9 per cent of that of OECD countries (EI, 2025). Over the past decade, Africa’s per capita energy consumption has stagnated or declined, even as the global average has risen, reflecting the continent’s rapid population growth and inadequate expansion of modern energy infrastructure. Nearly 80% of Africa’s population continues to rely on traditional biomass for cooking and heating. Furthermore, a large number of African countries are classified as least developed countries by the United Nations. This underscores that achieving the level of economic transformation necessary to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals will require substantial expansion of access to modern, reliable, and affordable energy sources.