A new report has revealed that Sub-Saharan Africa will require about $15 billion in annual investments to achieve universal access to electricity by 2035, warning that current funding levels remain significantly below what is needed to bridge the continent’s vast energy access gap.

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

According to the report, more than half a billion people, most of them living in rural communities across Sub-Saharan Africa, still lack access to electricity, despite recent gains in electrification efforts across the continent.

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

The report argued that fragmented delivery systems, poor allocation of risks among stakeholders and high financing costs continue to slow the pace of electrification, particularly in rural and remote communities where extending conventional grid infrastructure remains challenging.

It stressed that stronger public-private partnerships, improved coordination between governments, financiers, investors and operators, as well as innovative financing models, would be critical to reducing costs and accelerating energy access.

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

The report also advocated the establishment of 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.

In addition, it called for a shift away from financing focused solely on hardware deployment towards long-term funding models that support operations, maintenance and service reliability, ensuring sustained access to affordable electricity.

The report further highlighted 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 demonstrated that meaningful progress was possible when governments, development partners, philanthropies and the private sector worked together.

“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.

“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 said.

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 while several countries had made notable progress over the past decade, millions of rural residents remained 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.

“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.

Besides, the report stated that achieving universal energy access across Sub-Saharan Africa remains within reach, but warned 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. (Arise News)

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