Africa attracted just 3% of global energy investment in 2026 despite being home to 20% of the world’s population, as the International Energy Agency (IEA) released its landmark World Energy Investment 2026 report on Thursday, warning that the Strait of Hormuz crisis has triggered the most severe energy security shock in history and is reshaping where capital flows worldwide.
Global energy investment will reach $3.4 trillion in 2026, a 5% rise from 2025. Of that total, Africa’s share amounts to roughly $110 billion, a figure that grows 11% from 2025 but remains dwarfed by the scale of spending elsewhere. In a striking illustration of the disparity, energy sector investment in data centre infrastructure alone globally exceeded $105 billion in 2025, surpassing the entirety of Africa’s energy sector investment that year.
“I believe this will reshape investment strategies globally,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, describing the current crisis as the largest energy security disruption the world has ever faced.
Around $2.2 trillion of the total 2026 global figure will flow to renewables, nuclear, grids, storage, efficiency and electrification, while approximately $1.2 trillion will go to oil, natural gas and coal. Three-quarters of anticipated 2026 energy investments were effectively locked in before the Middle East conflict began, meaning the full structural shift the IEA expects will materialise in subsequent years rather than immediately.
For Africa, the crisis is already driving a visible shift in clean energy adoption. Fifteen African countries recorded record-high solar panel imports exceeding $400 million in the first quarter of 2026 alone, compared to $650 million for the whole of 2025. Chinese solar exports to Africa jumped 120% year-on-year in the same period, as households and businesses seek protection from fuel price volatility, particularly where diesel generators are common.
The broader energy investment picture for Africa shows a continent at a structural crossroads. Sub-Saharan Africa upstream oil and gas investment is set to rise 12% to nearly $24 billion in 2026, with investment growth concentrated in emerging producers including Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal and Uganda rather than in established producers such as Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Nigeria and Libya, where combined upstream spending has roughly halved from $50 billion in 2016 to $25 billion in 2025.
Clean energy spending in Africa grew 17% between 2024 and 2025 and is expected to reach nearly $50 billion in 2026. Low-emissions generation now accounts for 90% of total power generation investment on the continent, a 3.5-fold increase from a decade ago. Yet the absolute numbers remain small, and access gaps are severe: 590 million Africans lack electricity access and approximately 1 billion lack access to clean cooking.
The financing cost gap compounds the structural challenge. In emerging market and developing economies (EMDE), the cost of capital for energy projects is already at least double that of advanced economies and China. The Middle East conflict has pushed long-term borrowing costs higher, raising concerns that capital-intensive clean energy technologies will become less viable for African project developers precisely when the energy security case for them has grown stronger.
The IEA report notes that a one-percentage-point reduction in the cost of capital for EMDE clean power and end-use investment could cut financing costs by $30 billion over the next decade, underscoring how critical blended finance, development bank support and policy certainty are for Africa’s energy transition.
The global figures tell a different story. Investment in electricity grids is approaching $550 billion worldwide in 2026, up nearly 20% year-on-year. Battery storage investment will exceed $100 billion. Nuclear investment tops $80 billion with 78 gigawatts of new capacity under construction in 15 countries. Renewable power projects attract $665 billion, with solar alone receiving $365 billion — one billion dollars every day.
Oil investment is declining for a third consecutive year, falling below $500 billion despite elevated prices, as project lead times, supply chain constraints and capital discipline limit near-term spending responses outside the Middle East. Natural gas investment is rising to $330 billion, the highest level in a decade, driven by a wave of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects primarily in the United States and Qatar.
Coal investment is set to reach $180 billion in 2026, its highest level since 2012, with China accounting for nearly 70% of global coal supply spending and almost all approvals of new coal-fired power plants.
The IEA draws a direct parallel to the oil shocks of the 1970s, which prompted countries to diversify their energy sources, expand nuclear power and invest heavily in efficiency. The agency expects today’s crisis to leave a similarly lasting imprint on investment priorities, particularly across Asia and the Middle East where the disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been most acute.
For Africa and Ghana specifically, the message is both a warning and an opportunity: energy security concerns that are driving record solar adoption and rising upstream investment represent exactly the catalyst that previous shocks have used to accelerate structural change.
