Across Africa, from the bustling streets of Lagos to the vibrant heart of Nairobi, and from the coastal breeze of Accra to the dynamic pulse of Johannesburg, energy conferences are blooming. Grand ballrooms fill with delegates, PowerPoint presentations flash across screens, and ambitious targets are announced with great fanfare. Yet, despite this flurry of activity, over 600 million Africans still live without electricity, and countless communities remain shrouded in darkness when the sun sets.
This disconnect is glaring and deeply concerning. Africa doesn’t need more conferences; it needs heartfelt action that genuinely addresses the energy needs of its people, focusing on the transformative power of its abundant hydrocarbon resources, particularly natural gas.

The Sobering Reality Behind the Numbers

The statistics paint a stark picture. Africa, despite holding significant natural gas reserves, accounts for less than 3% of global electricity consumption, even though it’s home to 17% of the world’s population. In many countries, rural electrification rates hover below a challenging 20%, hindering everything from essential healthcare to vital educational opportunities.
Central Africa faces particularly acute challenges, struggling with some of the world’s lowest electrification rates. Countries like Chad, Central African Republic, and parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo have national electrification rates below 15%, a stark contrast to their vast, untapped natural gas and other energy resources.
Imagine clinics in rural Tanzania without reliable refrigeration for life-saving vaccines. Picture children in Ghana’s northern regions squinting to study by flickering kerosene lamps long after dark. Across Central Africa, entire communities in Chad and the Central African Republic are forced to rely on wood fuel for basic energy, often enduring regular blackouts even when they are near potential gas fields. Small businesses across the Sahel are forced to close when the sun sets, limiting their potential for growth and prosperity. These are not abstract policy challenges; they are daily realities impacting millions of lives, stifling human potential and delaying industrialization.

What Africa Truly Needs: Unleashing the Power of Gas

Leadership That Puts People First
Africa needs compassionate leaders who see energy access not as a distant luxury, but as a fundamental human right and a prerequisite for dignity and economic development. This means prioritizing energy projects that directly serve local communities and drive industrial growth, rather than solely focusing on export-oriented mega-projects that might generate revenue but leave local populations underserved and underdeveloped.
Harnessing Natural Gas for Industrialization and Mining
The true potential of Africa’s natural gas reserves lies in its ability to catalyze widespread industrialization and empower the vital mining sector. Many landlocked African countries are currently burning enormous quantities of expensive diesel to fuel their industries, creating both significant economic and environmental burdens. This reliance on imported, processed energy drains foreign exchange reserves and inflates manufacturing costs, making African industries less competitive globally.
Consider the plight of industrial cities like Douala in Cameroon, where gas rationing forces manufacturers to rely on costly diesel alternatives, undermining competitiveness and increasing emissions. Access to reliable, affordable natural gas would be a game-changer. It provides a stable, cleaner energy source that can power factories, reduce operational costs, and foster local value addition.
In the mining sector, natural gas offers a crucial solution for remote operations that lack grid connectivity. It can provide reliable power, helping mining companies avoid the financial volatility of diesel and heavy fuel oil prices. This transition to gas can reduce the environmental footprint of mining operations, align with sustainability goals, and create local jobs and opportunities within communities. South Africa’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) has recognized natural gas as a critical component of its future energy mix, explicitly highlighting its role in supporting the mining industry’s energy needs.
True Regional Collaboration: An Interconnected Africa
Energy resources, particularly natural gas, are unevenly distributed across the continent. Nigeria’s vast gas reserves could fuel power generation and industrial activity across West Africa. Mozambique and Tanzania hold significant gas discoveries that could transform East Africa.
Yet, artificial borders and a lack of cross-border infrastructure continue to fragment what should be interconnected regional energy markets. The continent needs leaders willing to think beyond national boundaries, fostering the development of regional gas pipeline networks that can optimize resource allocation across borders for the benefit of all. This vision of an interconnected Africa through robust pipeline networks holds the potential to fundamentally eradicate energy poverty and unlock shared prosperity.
For instance, the recent signing of the tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the Central African Pipeline System (CAPS) project by CEMAC, APPO, and CABEF is a concrete and highly commendable step in this direction for the Central African sub-region. This agreement aims to establish robust, interconnected networks of natural gas pipelines, crucial for improving fuel supply, addressing chronic energy shortages, and expanding access to reliable and affordable energy. This type of collaborative effort, directly linking producers to consumers, is precisely what Africa needs more of.
Investment in Solutions That Work – And The Irony of OIC’s Hesitation
Africa needs capital directed toward projects with clear pathways to serving underserved populations and powering economic growth. Yet, a persistent challenge is the narrative from some International Oil Companies (IOCs) and international financiers who argue that Africans cannot afford to pay for the gas they would provide. This perspective is deeply flawed and ignores the reality: Africa is already paying a far higher price by importing processed energy from outside the continent.
This imported energy, whether refined petroleum products or diesel for power generation, costs African nations billions of dollars annually in foreign exchange and sustains an economically debilitating cycle of dependence. The money spent on these imports could instead be directed towards developing domestic gas infrastructure, creating jobs, fostering local industries, and building sustainable energy security.
Consider the Dangote Refinery initiative in Nigeria as a powerful example. This monumental private sector investment is designed to process crude oil domestically, significantly reducing Nigeria’s reliance on imported refined petroleum products. Its success demonstrates that large-scale, transformative energy projects, when driven by a clear vision for domestic value addition, are not only feasible but profoundly impactful. We need to see similar bold initiatives in gas infrastructure across the continent.
When we observe developed regions undertaking massive infrastructure projects, the disparity becomes even more striking. For example, a $44 billion contract has been awarded for a natural gas pipeline in Alaska to transport gas from the Arctic to southern Alaska for liquefaction and export. If such an enormous investment can be justified for a project primarily aimed at export from a developed nation, why can’t Africa, with its vast proven reserves and urgent domestic needs, attract similar-scale investments for integrated pipeline networks that directly address energy poverty and drive industrialization across the continent?
The argument that Africans cannot afford gas provided by IOCs overlooks the immense economic burden of continued reliance on imported fuels and the potential for a self-sustaining, gas-powered industrial revolution. By investing in its own gas infrastructure, Africa can transition from being a mere exporter of raw materials to a continent that processes, manufactures, and innovates, retaining value within its borders.

A Call for Energy Justice

Africa’s energy future will not be built in traditional conference rooms, no matter how many gather to discuss abstract policies. It will be built through initiatives like CABEF and a continent-wide commitment to developing and distributing its vast natural gas resources.
The continent’s gas resources are abundant. Its entrepreneurial spirit is evident. Its need is urgent. What’s required now is the political will and practical expertise to move beyond conferences and commitments toward the systematic work of developing upstream resources, building midstream gas infrastructure, and ensuring downstream distribution reaches the communities that need it most for power, industrial growth, and job creation.
The signing of the CEMAC, APPO, and CABEF MoU for the CAPS project is a beacon of this new paradigm—where energy forums are judged not by the elegance of their presentations, but by the concrete projects they generate and implement. Where success is measured not in conference attendance, but in megawatts delivered from gas-fired plants, pipelines built to industries and mining sites, and communities connected to reliable energy sources.
The time for talking is over. The time for action—comprehensive, value-chain-integrated, expert-driven action focused on Africa’s gas potential—is now. Africa’s people deserve nothing less than leaders and partners who are willing to do the hard work of turning energy promises into gas infrastructure, and gas infrastructure into sustainable energy access, industrial prosperity, and economic liberation.
The next traditional energy conference can wait. The families still living without electricity, and the industries still burning expensive diesel, cannot.

Nathalie Lum
Chairwoman of CABEF