If Africa is to make sustained progress in meeting development goals, it must address energy poverty. To do so in the current environment will require deft macroeconomic management.

Africa’s growth boom since about the mid-1990s has intensified and underscored energy poverty. The continent’s diverse and often abundant energy sources are underdeveloped and poorly-utilised. Increasingly, energy bottlenecks are an obstacle for a continuation of the otherwise encouraging growth story. The scale of needed investments presents the continent with tremendous challenges, which have become even larger following the oil and food price shocks, and the financial market turmoil.