By CNBC Africa
Africa’s energy demand is increasing alongside industrialisation across the continent, while access to reliable electricity and clean cooking remains uneven, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Progress continues, but the region is not yet on track to meet universal access targets by 2030. At the same time, decentralized renewable energy solutions and increased collaboration between public and private sector players are shaping the pace and scale of electrification efforts. Ifeanyi Odoh, Country President at Schneider Electric joins CNBC Africa to discuss the energy market outlook and implications for the African economy.
Africa’s energy demand is climbing rapidly as industrialization accelerates across the continent, but uneven access to electricity and clean cooking — especially in Sub-Saharan Africa — continues to expose a major infrastructure gap and a significant investment opportunity, according to Ian Oddo, country president at Schneider Electric East Africa.
Speaking in a television interview on the continent’s energy outlook, Oddo said the scale of unmet power demand should be treated with urgency, even as it creates what he described as one of Africa’s most compelling long-term economic opportunities. More than 600 million people across Sub-Saharan Africa still lack reliable power today, he noted, even as population growth and rising digitization intensify pressure on already strained systems.
That challenge is becoming more urgent as Africa’s population is projected to expand sharply over the coming decades. Oddo said the continent must solve not only for current energy deficits, but also for the additional demand likely to come with another billion people over the next 25 to 50 years. In his view, the debate is no longer simply about energy access in humanitarian terms; it is increasingly about productivity, industrial competitiveness and the broader future of African economies.
Oddo framed the issue around three elements: urgency, opportunity and the policy and financing gap that continues to slow deployment. While some countries have advanced further than others in rolling out electrification solutions, he said broader progress will depend on making it easier for private sector players to participate at scale.
That includes technology providers, mini-grid developers and entrepreneurs working alongside governments, development finance institutions and multilateral agencies. According to Oddo, the ecosystem needed to support faster electrification already exists in many respects. What is now required is a stronger enabling environment, including consistent policies, clearer implementation frameworks and enough investor certainty to unlock larger pools of capital.
“The business case is there,” Oddo said, pointing to projects already operating at megawatt-scale in East Africa and elsewhere on the continent.
His comments underscore a wider shift in Africa’s energy conversation. Rather than focusing solely on whether technology is available, executives and policymakers are increasingly turning their attention to how quickly viable solutions can be deployed and financed. Mini-grids, decentralized renewable energy systems and digital energy management tools are emerging as central components of that push, particularly in areas where extending traditional grid infrastructure remains slow or uneconomic.
Oddo said digitization is adding a new layer of complexity to the energy challenge. The rise of connected devices, industrial automation and artificial intelligence is making electricity demand more intensive and more strategic. In that sense, energy access is becoming closely tied not just to economic development but also to national security and digital resilience.
He argued that digitization should no longer be seen as a secondary trend alongside electrification. Instead, the two need to be developed together. Reliable electricity is increasingly necessary to support data infrastructure, connected systems and modern industry, while digital technologies are also essential to improving the efficiency, reliability and scalability of distributed energy systems.
Policy consistency remains one of the most important issues in attracting private capital, Oddo said. He cited Nigeria’s mini-grid electrification policies as an example of meaningful progress and said continent-wide initiatives such as Mission 300 are helping signal intent and commitment from governments, multilateral institutions and development finance players. Still, he suggested that policy ambition must be matched by implementation and by practical structures that reduce perceived risk for investors.
That de-risking challenge spans several dimensions, he said, including the business model, the strength of off-takers and the reliability of supply chains. In each of these areas, local capacity building can play a critical role.
One area Schneider Electric is prioritizing, according to Oddo, is the localization of energy infrastructure supply. He said low-voltage systems required for mini-grids, industrial facilities, data centers and broader automation applications are already being assembled locally across Sub-Saharan Africa through licensing and training partnerships. In some cases, local manufacturing is also taking shape.
Local assembly and manufacturing can help cut risk by reducing reliance on imports, shortening lead times, building technical expertise within local markets and improving long-term serviceability. For investors, that could mean stronger project execution and less exposure to supply disruptions. For African economies, it also points to a broader industrial upside: electrification itself can become a catalyst for local manufacturing and skills development.
Oddo also emphasized the importance of learning across regions, saying policymakers should identify best practices from countries and projects that have already demonstrated success. From West Africa to East Africa, he said, there are examples that show mini-grids and decentralized power systems can work at scale when policy, capital and local execution capacity align.
His comments come as African governments, utilities, investors and development partners face mounting pressure to close the energy access gap before the end of the decade. Despite continued progress, the region is still not on track to achieve universal access by 2030. That leaves a narrowing window to accelerate deployment, particularly in underserved and lower-income communities where adoption barriers remain significant.
At the same time, the backdrop is changing. Industrial growth, rising urbanization and a fast-expanding digital economy are increasing the economic cost of energy shortfalls. For businesses, unreliable power can suppress output and raise operating costs. For governments, weak electricity access can undermine industrial policy goals and constrain job creation. And for investors, the gap represents both a challenge and an opening.
Oddo’s central message was that Africa does not lack solutions. The technologies are available, capital is showing interest and entrepreneurial ecosystems are emerging. The bigger question now is whether governments and market participants can move quickly enough to create the stable policy frameworks and localized delivery models needed to scale.
If they can, he suggested, the continent’s energy deficit could be addressed not only as a development imperative, but also as the foundation for a more industrialized, digitized and economically resilient Africa