Africa needs more electricity. The world burned $54billion worth of the fuel that could help

Africa is spending billions of dollars to tackle one of its biggest barriers to economic growth, access to reliable electricity.

Governments across the continent are investing in power generation, transmission infrastructure and cleaner cooking fuels, while the World Bank and the African Development Bank are leading Mission 300, an initiative designed to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030.

Yet, even as the continent races to close its energy gap, oil producers around the world burned an estimated $54 billion worth of natural gas last year instead of putting it to productive use.

The volume of gas flared was roughly equivalent to Africa’s annual gas consumption, underscoring the scale of the opportunity being lost.

“The gas flared in 2025 was worth an estimated US$54 billion,” the World Bank said in the report, describing the scale of resource waste and economic loss as “staggering.”