“West and Central Africa stands at the epicentre of the global energy access challenge. But it also stands at the frontier of opportunity. Renewable energy is a development imperative. Without energy, we would not be able to transform our countries. Without energy, we would not be able to provide the services that our governments have aspired in their national development plans to offer to their citizens.” said Njoya Tikum, Director for the UNDP sub-regional Hub for West Africa and Resident Representative for Senegal. 

Njoya Tikum expressed the hope that the workshop will enable country teams to equip governments, partners and private sector players in this field with new approaches and new opportunities to engage and help governments transform the energy sector.

Despite global progress on electricity access, “over 565 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa still live without electricity, while nearly four in five households rely on traditional fuels for cooking”. The Director of the UNDP Sustainable Energy Hub, Riad Meddeb, noted the context of the workshop. He highlighted that Africa accounts for “only 2% of global clean-energy investments, despite hosting “20% of the world’s population and possessing renewable-energy potential more than 1,000 times its projected electricity needs by 2040.”

Participants underscored that addressing energy poverty in West and Central Africa is not only a development imperative but also a major opportunity. Advances in digitalisation, data analytics, and artificial intelligence offer new tools to identify and close access gaps, unlock investment-grade opportunities, and optimise energy systems for inclusive, affordable, and resilient service delivery.

Yet the region continues to face several challenges, including the high cost of capital, mounting debt burdens, declining development finance flows, and fragmented interventions. Achieving universal access requires coordinated action, innovative financing, and market-shaping policies.

At the end of the workshop, Elisabeth Tossou, UNDP Benin Team Leader for Environment and Inclusive Growth, said that “the workshop has taught me a lot in terms of information and structural elements for collaborating with the government and improving collaboration with other stakeholders in Benin's energy sector.”  She added that it has enabled them as UNDP experts to strengthen their positions as technical assistants, strategic advisors, and supporters on various issues.

Citing Guinea as one of the countries in the sub-region with the lowest rural energy penetration, below 25%, Mahadou Cire Camara, UNDP Guinea Environment and Sustainable Development Programme Specialist, greeted the timeliness of the workshop. The country just held a roundtable conference aimed at boosting the implementation of Guinea’s national rural electrification to achieve universal access to energy in rural areas by 2040.