..Nigeria, Congo, Ethiopia Tops Others
Joseph Bakare
Sub-Saharan Africa continues to face a severe electricity access challenge, accounting for 86 per cent of the global electricity access deficit, despite steady gains in electrification across much of the world.
The data is contained in the Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report 2026, published on June 24 by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The concentration of the global electrification gap also appears at the country level. The 20 countries with the largest electricity access deficits account for more than three-quarters of all people lacking electricity worldwide. Eighteen of those countries are located in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Three countries Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia—represent roughly one-third of the problem. Nigeria has about 87 million people without electricity access, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo has 85 million and Ethiopia has 57 million.
The report shows that progress recorded globally between 2010 and 2024 has largely bypassed Sub-Saharan Africa.
“Sub-Saharan Africa’s share of the global electricity access deficit increased from 49% to 86% during this period. This shift reflects only a marginal decline in the number of people without electricity in the region from 565 million to 563 million while the rest of the world achieved faster progress,” the showed.
The report also noted that investment in electricity access remains “well below” the levels required to achieve universal access by 2030. To meet that goal, countries would need to more than triple the current pace of progress to 1.35 percentage points per year.
Although the global electricity access rate has stabilized at 92 per cent, Sub-Saharan Africa remains the only region where the rural electricity deficit worsened between 2010 and 2024. The number of rural residents without electricity increased from 376 million to 447 million during the period, highlighting persistent disparities between urban and rural communities.
The report’s authors found that countries making the strongest progress combine least-cost planning, dedicated electrification funds, blended finance mechanisms, targeted subsidies, PayGo financing models, social tariffs and effective regulation. These findings reinforce the importance of initiatives such as Mission 300, a joint effort backed by the World Bank and the African Development Bank that aims to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030.
The report concludes that the challenge extends beyond adding new generation capacity. Policymakers must also ensure that electricity services remain accessible, reliable and affordable for low-income households, particularly in rural areas.