Africa is entering a defining phase in its economic transformation. The continent possesses some of the world’s most important reserves of critical minerals, including copper, cobalt, lithium, manganese and graphite, all of which are central to electric vehicles, renewable energy systems and other technologies driving the global energy transition.
Yet the ability to benefit from this resource wealth will depend on something less visible than the minerals themselves: electricity.
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Africa’s power infrastructure remains fragmented, underfunded and, in many countries, unable to provide the reliable electricity required for large-scale industrial activity. The 2026 State of Africa’s Infrastructure Report from the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) highlights the need for greater investment in transmission and regional interconnection as the continent seeks to move beyond exporting raw materials towards processing and manufacturing.
Building cross-border transmission networks and strengthening regional power pools could therefore become one of the most consequential infrastructure priorities of the coming decade.
Africa’s mineral wealth has been estimated at approximately $29.5 trillion, but resource abundance alone does not guarantee economic transformation. Without dependable and competitively priced electricity, much of the value generated by these resources will continue to be captured outside the continent.
The energy bottleneck
Africa’s mineral-processing ambitions are constrained by a significant energy deficit. Nearly 600 million Africans lack access to electricity, according to the African Development Bank, while the continent also faces substantial investment requirements to modernise and expand its power networks.
Transmission remains a particular weakness. The African Development Bank estimates that Africa needs hundreds of billions of dollars in energy investment this decade, while transmission has historically received a relatively small share of overall power-sector spending.
This matters because mineral processing is highly energy-intensive.
Smelting, refining and the manufacture of battery-grade materials require reliable, high-capacity electricity. Copper and cobalt processing, for example, cannot depend on intermittent supply without increasing operating costs and disrupting production.
The result is a structural disadvantage. Africa can possess the minerals required by the global green economy while still exporting them largely in unprocessed form.
The International Energy Agency has projected significant growth in the value of Africa’s refined mineral markets in the coming decades, but capturing that value domestically will depend on the continent’s ability to build the infrastructure required for processing.
Connecting Africa’s power resources
One of the continent’s greatest opportunities lies in connecting power systems that currently operate largely in isolation.
Regional power pools already demonstrate what greater interconnection can achieve. The Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) facilitates electricity trading among member states, allowing countries with surplus generation to support neighbours facing shortages.
However, important gaps remain.
The planned Zambia-Tanzania-Kenya interconnector, for instance, is expected to establish a physical connection between the Southern African Power Pool and the Eastern African Power Pool. Such links can create a larger regional electricity market and allow power to move towards areas where it is most needed.
The logic is straightforward: Africa does not necessarily have to generate all the electricity it needs within each national border. It needs systems capable of moving available power efficiently across borders.
This becomes particularly important as climate variability affects hydropower generation.
During periods of severe drought, countries heavily dependent on hydropower can face dramatic electricity shortages. At the same time, another country within the region may have unused generation capacity but lack the transmission infrastructure to export it.
Stronger interconnection can help reduce this mismatch.
West Africa offers another model
The West African Power Pool (WAPP) provides another example of regional integration. Comprising 14 member states, the initiative seeks to strengthen electricity trading and synchronise national systems across the region.
The Côte d’Ivoire-Liberia-Sierra Leone-Guinea (CLSG) interconnector has already demonstrated the potential benefits of cross-border transmission, improving access to electricity and reducing dependence on expensive domestic generation in participating countries.
However, expanding these networks requires more than engineering expertise.
Transmission projects involve substantial upfront capital, lengthy development periods and complex negotiations involving multiple governments and regulators. Harmonising tariffs, market rules, technical standards and power-trading arrangements will be essential.
Financing the transmission revolution
The scale of the challenge means governments cannot carry the burden alone.
Africa needs greater participation from development finance institutions, pension funds, commercial investors and infrastructure funds. Public-private partnerships and independent transmission projects are already emerging as potential mechanisms for bringing private capital into a sector traditionally dominated by state-owned utilities.
The Regional Transmission Infrastructure Financing Facility (RTIFF), backed by the African Development Bank and World Bank, represents one example of efforts to mobilise financing for power interconnections in Eastern and Southern Africa.
At the same time, Africa’s growing pool of domestic institutional capital presents an opportunity to finance more of its own infrastructure.
The AFC has highlighted the potential of African financial resources to support long-term investments in transmission networks, smart grids and other infrastructure assets.
The challenge is to create investment structures that can make these projects commercially viable while maintaining affordability and public value.
From mineral wealth to industrial wealth
The ultimate prize is not simply a more reliable electricity system. It is the industrial transformation that reliable power can make possible.
Processing critical minerals closer to their source can create jobs, develop technical capabilities, strengthen local supply chains and retain a greater share of economic value within African economies.
The Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia’s efforts to develop a regional battery and electric-vehicle value chain illustrate the potential. Rather than exporting minerals separately, the two countries are seeking to collaborate on processing and manufacturing opportunities around their shared mineral resources.
This is the direction Africa’s industrial strategy must increasingly take: connecting resources, energy, infrastructure, skills and markets.
The opportunity is considerable. The World Economic Forum has projected that greater mineral beneficiation could significantly increase Africa’s economic output while generating millions of industrial jobs.
But none of these gains is automatic.
Building the infrastructure behind the opportunity
Africa’s critical-minerals opportunity will ultimately be determined by the infrastructure surrounding the resources.
Transmission networks may not attract the same attention as new mines, refineries or battery plants, but they are the systems that make those investments commercially possible.
For African governments, the priority should therefore be to treat transmission infrastructure as a strategic industrial asset rather than simply a component of the electricity sector.
That means accelerating regional interconnection projects, strengthening power pools, creating predictable regulatory frameworks and developing financing models capable of attracting long-term private capital.
Africa has an opportunity to move from being a major supplier of the minerals powering the global energy transition to becoming a more influential participant in the industries built around them.
The minerals may be beneath Africa’s soil, but the economic value they create will depend on what happens above ground — particularly whether the continent can build the power networks capable of turning resource wealth into industrial strength.
