Africa energy leaders call for production-led planning to drive industrialization

At the Future of Energy Conference 2026 in Accra, policy leaders and economic experts argued that Africa must shift its energy planning from focusing on household consumption to supporting industrial production and value addition.

Dr. Marit Kitaw of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) emphasized that industrialization is impossible without reliable and affordable power, noting that the continent must avoid simply exporting the minerals required for the global energy transition without using them to power local transformation. This sentiment was echoed by Ghana’s Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, who advocated for treating Africa as a single unified market to drive industrial growth.

Addressing the financing gap, Dr. George Nana Agyekum Donkor, President of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), warned that nearly 600 million Africans still lack electricity. He noted that the African Development Bank estimates a requirement of $25 billion annually to achieve universal access. To combat this, EBID has committed over $1 billion to the energy value chain as of June 2026, with a goal to invest at least $2 billion by 2030.

Challenges remain regarding the cost of capital; energy projects in West Africa face financing costs as high as 15%, significantly higher than the 4% to 6% seen in Europe, creating a circular barrier where investors demand proven industrial demand that can only be created by the energy projects themselves.