African Leaders Call for Power Systems Built Around Industrial Growth

Africa may connect more homes to electricity, but policy leaders at the Future of Energy Conference 2026 said the continent’s real test is whether that power can keep factories, processing plants and businesses working. They warned that electricity access without production would leave Africa with more consumers but little economic change.

The message came as African countries expand electricity access and pursue industrial growth at the same time.

Ghana, one of the examples raised at the conference organised by the Africa Centre for Energy Policy, already has electricity access of about 89 per cent. The country aims to reach universal access by 2030.

But Dr Marit Kitaw, an Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, said the number of people connected to electricity cannot be the only measure of progress.

“Universal energy access remains a moral and development imperative. Access alone is not enough and industrial transformation requires power that is affordable, reliable, scalable and available,” she said.

Her warning placed a different question before African governments: after electricity reaches homes, what does it help people and economies produce?

That question is becoming more important as African countries look to their mineral resources, larger electricity systems and continental market to create jobs and keep more value within Africa.

Dr Kitaw said Africa must rethink the way it plans and deploys energy.

She said a just transition in the minerals sector could not happen without a just transition in energy.

That means electricity planning must support more than household consumption. It must also support industries that process raw materials and manufacture goods.

Raw minerals are not transformation

Ghana’s Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, took the argument further, warning Africa against repeating its long-standing dependence on exporting raw materials.

“We must not replace fossil fuel export with raw minerals export and call it transformation because that it not,” he emphasised.

The warning goes to the heart of Africa’s industrial challenge.

The continent has natural resources, a large population and a vast market. Yet the policy leaders said those advantages must become production if they are to change economic fortunes.

Forson said Africa should industrialise as one market instead of treating its 54 economies as separate economic spaces.

“Africa must industralize as one market, not 54 fragmented economies. The Africa Continental Free Trade Area gives us reach but agreements alone does not create trade. We must move from trading what we produce to producing what Africa trades in,” he stated.

The African Continental Free Trade Area, known as AfCFTA, gives African countries access to a market of about 1.4 billion people, Dr Kitaw said.

But a large market also needs goods to buy and sell.

That brings the discussion back to electricity.

Factories need power to operate. Processing plants need power to turn minerals and other raw materials into products. Businesses need dependable supply to work.

Without that type of electricity system, policy leaders said, universal access may not produce the economic change African governments want.

Forson said the continent had the resources, people and market needed for a different economic outcome.

“The resources are here in Africa, the market is with us, the people of Africa are ready. Let us turn Africa’s potential into production; production into jobs; and jobs into prosperity,” the Minister said.

One market, shared power

The conference also turned to regional cooperation as a way of making electricity more useful to industry.

Dr Kitaw said regional power pools could allow African countries to share electricity generation capacity, lower system costs and improve reliability.

That could help countries use available energy resources across national borders.

“Regional power pools can help countries share generation capacity, reduce system costs and improve reliability, while regional mineral corridors can connect mines to processing hubs, manufacturing centers and markets,” she said.

The idea is to connect electricity with the full journey of a resource.

A mineral could leave a mine, enter a processing hub, pass into manufacturing and reach a market. Each stage would need infrastructure and energy.

Dr Kitaw said energy planning should therefore sit alongside mineral development, industrial policy, trade arrangements, infrastructure corridors and skills development.

That approach would give electricity a direct place in Africa’s economic plans.

The conference heard that Africa’s energy transition should not stop at counting new connections or measuring household access. The more difficult task is building power systems that can support production on a large scale.

Ghana’s 89 per cent access rate and its 2030 universal access goal show the importance African countries place on connecting people to electricity. Yet the policy leaders warned that connection is only one part of the picture.

The quality of supply is also important. Industry needs electricity that is affordable, reliable, scalable and available, Dr Kitaw said.

That requirement separates power for basic consumption from power capable of supporting factories and processing plants.

Africa is now trying to use several assets at once: its natural resources, expanding energy systems, workforce and the AfCFTA market. The policy leaders’ message was that those assets must meet in production.