Report: Africa Requires $15 billion Per Year to Reach Universal Electricity Access by 2035

•  Current investments remain below $2.5bn per year

A new report shows that Sub‑Saharan Africa will need roughly $15 billion in annual investments to reach universal electricity access by 2035, noting that current funding levels are far below what is required to close the continent’s large energy gap.

The study, titled “Structuring for the Last Mile: Financing the Next Era of African Electrification,” was presented at the Africa Energy Forum 2026 by the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) and the Lightrock Energy Access Platform (LEAP), with support from The Rockefeller Foundation.

According to the report, more than half a billion people—most living in rural communities across Sub‑Saharan Africa—still lack electricity, despite recent gains in electrification.

It states that achieving universal energy access would require about $15 billion per year, while current investments stay below $2.5 billion annually, creating a substantial financing shortfall that threatens efforts to deliver power to underserved populations.

The report argues that fragmented delivery systems, poor risk allocation among stakeholders, and high financing costs continue to slow electrification, especially in rural and remote areas where extending conventional grid infrastructure is difficult.

It stresses that stronger public‑private partnerships, better coordination between governments, financiers, investors and operators, and innovative financing models are essential to reduce costs and accelerate access.

Among its key findings, the report notes that private operators often bear demand, payment and currency risks that could be managed more effectively through government‑backed policies and risk‑sharing mechanisms. Reallocating these risks could lower the cost of capital and attract more private investment into distributed renewable energy projects and rural electrification initiatives.

The report also advocates establishing dedicated service territories for energy providers, arguing that granting operators exclusive service areas alongside universal access obligations could reduce market fragmentation, improve economies of scale and make electrification projects in remote communities more commercially viable.

Additionally, it calls for a shift away from financing focused solely on hardware deployment toward long‑term funding models that support operations, maintenance and service reliability, ensuring sustained access to affordable electricity.

The study further highlights the importance of expanding data collection and analysis to improve demand forecasting, planning and pricing for productive electricity use, thereby enhancing the sustainability of electrification programmes.

Vice President for Africa at GEAPP, Carol Koech, said recent gains demonstrate that meaningful progress is possible when governments, development partners, philanthropies and the private sector collaborate.

“We are making real progress. This week, Mission 300 announced that 55 million people have gained access to electricity across Africa, demonstrating what is possible when governments, development partners, philanthropies and the private sector work together,” she said.

“But with population growth continuing to outpace new connections in many countries, we must move faster. This report outlines how we get there: through stronger partnerships, smarter financing and better risk‑sharing. As we expand energy access, we must also expand economic opportunity, ensuring that electricity creates jobs and grows incomes in the communities it reaches,” she added.

Mission 300 is a joint initiative of the World Bank and the African Development Bank, supported by GEAPP, The Rockefeller Foundation and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), with a target of providing electricity access to 300 million Africans by 2030.

Executive Director of LEAP, Hanaan Marwah, said that while several countries have made notable progress over the past decade, millions of rural residents remain underserved.

“It is not only important that people have access to an electricity connection, but also that the wider context allows for affordable ongoing use to impact lives for the long term. By reducing fragmentation, allocating risk more systematically and applying proven financing models to effective last‑mile solutions and their servicing, governments and development partners can accelerate the path to universal energy access,” Marwah stated.

Also commenting, Vice President of Power at The Rockefeller Foundation, Cassady Walters, said electrification efforts should focus on delivering reliable power rather than on specific technologies.

“We have to stop approaching electrification as a technology choice and start from the outcome: getting lasting, abundant power to every community, using whatever mix of grid and distributed solutions fits best,” Walters said.

“As initiatives like Mission 300 mobilise billions, we have a rare chance to build the models that deliver energy access to every customer, paying operators for service rather than hardware, holding them to results, and sharing risk across governments, operators and financiers so capital flows at lower cost and greater scale,” Walters added.

Finally, the report states that achieving universal energy access across Sub‑Saharan Africa remains within reach, but warns that without significant increases in investment, stronger public‑private collaboration and more effective risk‑sharing frameworks, progress could fall short of the continent’s electrification ambitions.