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MacroSnaps16 October 2026
No. 97

Africa has the best sunshine on earth and gets 2% of the world's clean-energy investment.

People without power
75%
Best solar sites
60%
Population
18%
Clean-energy investment
2%

Each bar is Africa's share of the world's total: about a fifth of humanity, roughly three-quarters of the people with no electricity, and some 60% of the world's best solar sites (the places with the strongest, steadiest sun), yet just 2% of clean-energy investment.

Why this is happening
  • Borrowing costs far more in Africa. Investors charge African projects high interest rates, so even with the cheapest sunshine, the electricity ends up expensive and many projects never get built.
  • Africa has little money of its own to invest, and foreign investors see the region as risky, so they want higher returns before they will put money in.
  • So the money goes where investors feel safe, not where the sun, the need or the people are.
The take

The places with the most sun and the most need get the least money. Africa's demand for electricity is growing, and if it is met with coal, gas and diesel generators instead of solar, the world's climate targets get harder to hit.

Source: IEA, BloombergNEF (2026)
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The underlying data

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