A record number of people in Africa gained electricity access in 2025

The latest IEA data show that around 30 million people gained access to electricity globally in 2025, with the number of people without access declining by around 15 million to 720 million. This marked the largest annual reduction since 2020.

Worldwide progress was led by an acceleration in sub-Saharan Africa, where the number of people without electricity access fell by a record 8 million, the largest improvement since the IEA began tracking electricity access in 2000. Progress was particularly strong in several countries with the largest access deficits: in Kenya, 5 million people gained access, while the access rate increased by more than five percentage points in Mozambique, Senegal and Uganda. In 25 out of the 50 countries in the region, the pace of progress in 2025 was faster than the average between 2010 and 2019.

This acceleration reflects renewed policy momentum and stronger investment in electricity infrastructure. Many African countries have strengthened their national electrification plans in the context of the Mission 300 initiative, through which the World Bank invested USD 960 million in electricity access in 2025 (in 2026, spending is expected to rise to USD 2.5 billion). Investment in electricity generation and transmission projects from China’s Belt and Road Initiative and project developers from the Middle East also increased.

Even so, some countries faced setbacks. Sudan saw its access rate fall amid continued conflict, while the latest surveys point to a decline in Nigeria’s electricity access rate between 2022 and 2024 – particularly in the country’s northwest, where security challenges and displacement disrupted access. These trends are also reflected in satellite data on nighttime lights, which the IEA is using to better capture recent changes in electricity access – particularly in areas affected by conflict and where survey data is becoming more infrequent. In total, in 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, population growth outpaced the number of people who gained access in 2025, which meant the number of people without access in these countries increased.

Electricity access in developing Asia reached around 99% in 2025, which meant around 50 million people were left without access. Progress is increasingly a last-mile challenge, with Cambodia and Nepal both approaching universal access following sustained electrification efforts. However, population growth continues to outpace the number of people gaining access in Pakistan, while economic instability and weak infrastructure are constraining progress in Afghanistan, Myanmar and Papua New Guinea. In the Middle East, protracted crises have pushed up the number of people without access, particularly in Yemen, where more than 6 million people still lack access. Electricity reliability also remains a major challenge in parts of the Middle East as damage to infrastructure and disruptions to fuel supplies continue to undermine electricity supply.

In Latin America, access gaps are largely concentrated in remote rural areas, with the region approaching 98% access to electricity in 2025. Gains in the region were led by Colombia, where the expansion of off-grid solar solutions is helping reach underserved households. Haiti remains a major exception; around half of its population is still without electricity, and the rate of progress has continued to deteriorate.

The acceleration in progress on electricity access may prove difficult to sustain in 2026. Higher fuel costs linked to the ongoing Middle East conflict are straining utility and government budgets, while rising debt-servicing costs and declining development finance could limit investment in new connections. Together with persistent conflict and instability in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel, these pressures are expected to weigh on further progress this year.

In sub-Saharan Africa, grid connections have resumed pace after a major slowdown during the pandemic, accounting for around two-thirds of people who gained access in the region in 2025. On average, utilities reported an annual increase of 8% in the number of connections, although this partly reflects meters installed to formalise existing connections rather than new access (the IEA accounts for this in its estimates). New grid connections remained concentrated in urban and peri-urban areas, with strained utility finances continuing to hinder larger efforts to extend access to more rural areas.

The number of people gaining access through off-grid solutions, including both stand-alone systems and mini-grid connections, has surged again after dipping in 2023 and 2024. Solar home system sales reached record levels in 2025, and based on sales data from GOGLA, the leading off-grid solar market association, 9 million people gained access through these systems, topping the previous record of 7.5 million in 2022.

Growth in solar home system sales was led by Nigeria and several countries in East Africa, including Burundi, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Most new access was provided by systems in the 11‑20 watt-peak (Wp) range, which is typically sufficient to power several lights, charge phones and operate small appliances such as radios. Although these systems provide only basic electricity services, their growing uptake signals a shift toward larger systems, as sales of solar lighting products below 10 Wp – which do not meet the IEA’s definition of electricity access – saw their share of total sales decrease by 5% in 2025. This trend has been supported by new requirements on minimum system size in some electricity access development programmes, as well as the growing availability of consumer financing, including pay-as-you-go models. Recent industry consolidation has also concentrated market share among larger firms with greater capital and more established consumer financing offerings.

Mini-grids are also gaining momentum in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, with the ramp-up of large national programmes in countries such as Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda. The majority of new mini-grids installed have been solar or hybrid systems. According to the Africa Solar Industry Association, more than 300 MW of peak solar mini-grid capacity was operational in the region as of 2025.

While electricity access continues to expand in Africa, reliability is deteriorating for many grid-connected consumers. Afrobarometer data show that 21 of the 35 countries surveyed in both 2023 and 2025 reported an increase in power outages. Household reliability fell most sharply in Zambia, Guinea, Mali and Madagascar; in each of these countries, the share of connected households reporting reliable supply dropped by more than 33 percentage points.

Businesses face similar challenges. In sub-Saharan Africa, the share of firms experiencing power outages rose from 74% to 79%. In West Africa, in particular, Nigeria accounted for around four-fifths of the increase.

Disruptions from conflict and severe weather compound the problem, but strained grids and underinvestment also remain key challenges. Energy crisis pressures and tight public budgets have further weakened utilities’ finances: around 75% of utilities in sub-Saharan Africa are in poor financial health, compared with 45% in developing Asia. This limits investment in network maintenance, modernisation and expansion.

As grid reliability falters, households and businesses are increasingly turning to backup generation. Diesel and petrol generators remain the dominant option, particularly for businesses. In its first assessment of backup generator use in sub-Saharan Africa, the IEA estimates that 125 gigawatts (GW) of diesel and petrol generator capacity is currently installed across the region, up from 75 GW in 2010. However, falling costs, the wider availability of solar and battery off-grid solutions, high oil-product prices and restrictions on generator sales in some markets are supporting alternatives. These trends have contributed to a plateau in annual sales of oil-based generators to households and businesses in sub-Saharan Africa around 11 GW.

Measuring electricity access remains a challenge, and the availability of traditional primary data sources is declining. Household surveys remain an important anchor for measuring electricity access, providing nationally representative information that can be used to establish estimates for individual years. However, surveys are not conducted annually, creating gaps in the monitoring of progress. Moreover, in the past five years, the number of surveys in sub-Saharan Africa measuring electricity access roughly halved compared with the 2016-2020 period, and the trend now risks worsening since major survey programmes, including the Demographic and Health Survey, have seen funding cuts. This could hinder efforts to track electrification progress at a critical time, as a wave of new programmes and policies are being implemented.

The IEA has traditionally filled survey gaps using supply-side data from ministries, utilities and trade associations. Yet alternative data sources can provide more timely insights into electrification progress. These include satellite tracking of nighttime lights, for which data is available regularly and at a high geographical resolution. This makes it possible to see where electrification is taking place, with a time lag on the order of months instead of years.

Given these benefits, the IEA has begun integrating nighttime lights with supply-side data as an additional source when tracking recent changes in electricity access. Alongside this commentary, the underlying nighttime light data is made available to the public through an interactive map, allowing users to navigate and explore trends worldwide and gain further insights into electrification patterns. It also highlights several cases where changes in nighttime light have been significant, including Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal and Sudan.

To make this resource as useful as possible, the observations are processed to account for background noise and other sources of light, then combined with population density and analysed using a statistical approach to identify patterns linked to electrification. The results are compared with historical trends and calibrated against household survey data to keep the estimates aligned with changes observed on the ground. This calibration also helps account for other sources of light that do not necessarily reflect gains in household electricity access, such as street lighting programmes.

However, there are limitations. Households relying on small off-grid systems in dispersed settlements are often not detected by satellite imagery. The signal captured by the satellite can also vary based on the time of the observation and the type of lighting used. Other sources of light, such as gas flares or forest fires, can pollute the signal. Moreover, in urban areas, gains in electricity access can be difficult to detect, particularly where electrification progresses through the densification of access in already illuminated areas. While calibration helps control for some of these factors, it does not eliminate the need for wider range of data sources to deliver a complete picture of access trends. The IEA continues to refine its use of satellite imagery and other geospatial tools to improve the tracking of electricity access worldwide.