Energy Poverty in African Countries : An Assessment of Trends and Policies

Energy poverty, understood as the lack of access to adequate and enough energy services, constitutes a severe development problem for the African continent. Even though several policies and alleviation measures have been implemented in the last decades, African countries are still far from the end of this problem as multiple challenges remain to be overcome. Therefore, the present paper pursues a better understanding of these challenges related to energy poverty alleviation in Africa and the identification of suitable solutions to address them. To do so, we implemented a literature review and a bibliometric analysis concerning the energy poverty context in Africa together with a survey to involved actors aimed at identifying the current constraints and challenges in the path of ending energy poverty in the continent. We found that governance-related issues, including to corruption and poor policy implementation, are the most indicated reason for energy poverty in Africa, over technological, financial and policy issues. In addition, the paper explores some prospects and strategies that may help to address the highlighted issues