Across the continent, a staggering 600 million people remain without access to electricity, a number that translates into significant energy poverty, particularly in rural Africa, where 70-

80 million need to gain access yearly to be on track to meet the 2030 universal access to electricity target.

While our continent accounts for 17% of the world’s population, we generate less than 3% of global electricity. This ‘power poverty’ stifles industrialization, limits healthcare outcomes, and constrains economic transformation even as Africa exports uranium and other critical minerals to power many parts of the world. Although there is remarkable progress across countries on the continent, the overall pace of progress is slow, requiring an ambitious shift towards nuclear energy, tailored to Africa’s unique needs and opportunities.

Confronting our fears – examples from around the world

Critics are right to debate questions of safety, malice, accidents, cost and potential harmful effects on the environment. Many argue that investing in renewables is sufficient. Furthermore, the public is unlikely to forget Chernobyl and Fukushima and the constant threat of nuclear war. Yet, South Africa’s Koeberg plant has operated safely for 40 years, proving nuclear energy works on the continent. In addition, experts note that nuclear energy has the lowest death rate per kWh of any major energy source, safer than wind and solar when accounting for manufacturing risks. Modern reactors such as Westinghouse’s AP1000 have passive safety systems that shut down automatically.

With its 25 reactors, South Korea has gone from energy importer to nuclear energy exporter, and has a target of providing 30% of its electricity while cutting emissions by 2030. Similarly, France generates 70% of its electricity from nuclear, achieving Europe’s lowest electricity prices and a clean grid. Bangladesh, with GDP per capita similar to Kenya’s, is building its first reactor with Russian support, proving nuclear energy can be accessible to developing countries.

And there are more encouraging developments closer home. Egypt is constructing four 1,200

MW reactors at El Dabaa—a $30 billion bet on nuclear as an industrial catalyst. Ghana has partnered with NuScale Power to explore Small Modular Reactors – SMRs that could power mines and cities simultaneously. Furthermore, countries that fall under the Tier 1 category – Egypt, Rwanda, Ghana, Uganda, South Africa, Nigeria and Zambia – are firmly committed to starting or expanding their nuclear energy programs. Governments in Niger, Kenya, Tunisia, Morocco, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Namibia, D.R. Congo, Senegal, Algeria and Zimbabwe are working towards the role of nuclear energy in their future electricity supply systems.

Powering industrialisation and the AfCFTA

The International Energy Agency estimates that growth in Africa’s industry, commerce and agriculture will require electricity demand to grow by 40% by 2030. ECA assesses that the African Continental Free Trade Area electricity needs will account for 8% of the total continental electricity capacity by 2035, and 14% by 2040, requiring additional investment of

$22.4 billion between 2025 and 2040. Furthermore, by 2040, due to rapid population and economic growth in Africa, the electricity supply must expand by more than 4 times. Furthermore, Africa is facing sectoral transformations due to frontier technologies. Data centres to store big data and power frontier technologies require a significant energy supply. The gradual transition of Africa’s transport system to electric vehicles will also increase the demand for electricity generation on the continent.

Africa can no longer risk crawling its way out of energy insecurity.  As we say in Africa, we can sing and dance at the same time. As we invest in renewable energy resources, we can also advance nuclear energy development. Egypt’s El Dabaa will deliver 4,800 MW for $6.25 billion. With an over 40-year lifespan, Nuclear makes it cost-competitive.

But what about the nagging question of nuclear waste? Current innovations are proving that new reactor designs consume nuclear waste as fuel. Waste management systems have also developed to offer safer options for disposal. Countries such as Niger with large deposits of uranium could power reactors for centuries while solving waste challenges. Namibia could achieve energy independence and power the rest of Africa for decades to come– after all, Africa controls 20% of global uranium reserves.

Government Commitment and Tangible Benefits

The path ahead is clear. We must harness nuclear energy’s potential and adopt a bold political commitment backed by a clear national roadmap, including target dates for operational plants and long-term capacity-building initiatives. The potential is enormous and could result in creating thousands of skilled jobs and transforming Africa’s energy system towards greater energy security.

Governments need to tap into the reliability of nuclear power. With a 90% capacity factor, plants enjoy up to 45 years of economic life. While large-scale reactors provide stable baseload power, low-hanging fruit should focus on deploying SMRs first (20-300 MW) to power mines and industries, before scaling up to gigawatt plants.

To address the financing hurdle, which requires high upfront costs (70–85% fixed), countries can draw lessons from Africa’s 6.4 GW renewable energy projects, such as South Africa’s procurement program and global nuclear public-private partnership financing models.

Africa’s regional power pools, such as the Southern African Power Pool and the upcoming launch of a regional electricity market in the East African Power Pool, could amplify investment by pooling demand. The African Single Electricity Market (2040 vision) aims to integrate continental grids, boosting nuclear power’s viability.

Creating an African Nuclear Alliance can pool resources, negotiate better technology transfer deals and training programs and reform energy financing in partnership with Africa’s financial institutions to de-risk projects. The African Union and regional blocs must lead this charge to secure Africa’s energy future.

The time is now to move from potential to action. If done right, Africa could be a leader in this sector. Nuclear energy offers a bright future. But we must act deliberately and have the courage to embrace it.

Claver Gatete is the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa.

When Awazi Angbalaga Joshua launched Shaaré in Nigeria, her goal was to connect skilled workers to people who needed their services.

Using no-code tools and support from her community, she built a home services platform that made connection easier, faster, and more consistent.

“Shaaré is a business I built with some of the smartest people I know, often through the hardest nights,” she explained.

Shaaré is part of a growing wave of ventures across Africa using jobtech to expand access to work, especially for women navigating informal economies.

“There were times I doubted, not the vision or relevance of the product, but my ability to carry it forward in the long run,” she reflected.

“But today, Shaaré is helping hundreds of people earn income every week… The impact has grown beyond our immediate market and is now being recognized internationally.”

Women’s participation in Africa’s labour market still lags behind that of men. As of 2020, only 52 percent of women across the continent were active in the labour force compared to 72 percent of men, according to 2021 data by the International Labour Organization.

In North Africa, the rate drops to 25 percent.

Yet in Africa’s digital labour platforms, a more complex picture is emerging, one where women, often overlooked in traditional labour systems, are getting more involved.

According to a 2025 study by Jobtech Alliance, based on data from 78,000 users, women on digital work platforms earn 24 percent more on average than men, and they stay longer, with a 19 percent higher retention rate.

Although only 45% of income earners on these platforms are women, they make up 48% of those earning what the report calls “quality income.”

According to Janet Wandia, a gender lead at Jobtech Alliance, the trend stems from how the platforms are built and who they are built for.

“When digital work systems are intentionally designed with women’s needs in mind, the outcomes speak volumes, not just in terms of gender equity, but also business performance.”

Jobtech platforms often operate on commission-based models where user success directly correlates to platform revenue. Women users, with their higher retention and performance, present a strong business case. They cost less to acquire and onboard, stay active longer, and complete more consistent work.

According to Wandia, these trends reinforce what microfinance once proved: when women are given equitable access, they often deliver more dependable returns.

Several dynamics explain this performance gap. Jobtech’s flexibility is especially beneficial to women, who spend nearly three times more time on unpaid care work than men, according to UN Women.

Across Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, more than 78% of women in a 2022 World Bank study cited the ability to set their own hours as the primary benefit of digital work.

In South Africa, nearly three-quarters of women on digital platforms said they could better balance work and family responsibilities. Moreover, jobtech helps circumvent the “who-you-know” dynamics of offline labour markets, which typically reward older men with established networks.

Digital platforms often rely on algorithmic matching and measurable performance, opening up access to women who might otherwise be excluded.

Microtask platforms like Rwazi show that nearly 58% of their workforce is female.

On Wowzi, a creator-matching platform, women represent only a third of influencers but account for more than half of those accessing quality jobs. They earn 23% more than men and exhibit a 23% higher retention rate. In agent models, women outperform again.

Marianne Mwaniki, founder of Avunja, a Kenyan jobtech, notes that while more men initially download the app, women consistently deliver better results and stay longer.

Most team leads on the platform are women, a trend supported by broader evidence. A 2020 World Bank study in the Democratic Republic of Congo found that female customers are not only more likely to engage with female agents, but their transaction volumes with them are also 66% higher.

It is not just as users that women are thriving. They are now designing and leading the very platforms enabling this shift.

In Nigeria, Chinwe Udo-Davis, founder of Installer, left a corporate job to build a cleantech platform connecting solar installers to clean energy firms. Her platform has trained over 500 technicians and completed more than 1,800 projects.

Through the InstallHer initiative, she is specifically training women in solar installation, with the goal of skilling 10,000 female technicians across Africa by 2030.

For Chinwe, energy access is not just about powering homes—it’s about powering livelihoods. Installer is more than a tech solution; it’s a tool for economic transformation led by women, for women.

Awazi and Chinwe are part of a growing ecosystem of women-led innovation pushing the jobtech frontier across Africa. In Kenya, platforms like Avunja and Africa AI Labs are developing targeted onboarding and financial tools for female workers.

In Rwanda and Uganda, experiments with inclusive freelance models are beginning to create more accessible pipelines into digital labour for women.

Many of these platforms receive support from gender-intentional accelerators such as TECA and Catalyst Fund, which have ensured that at least a third of their startup cohorts are women-led and actively prioritize female user inclusion.

Yet none of this happens by chance. Wandia emphasizes that high female participation is the result of thoughtful platform architecture, from accessible interfaces to algorithmic fairness, from safety protocols to referral incentives.

African countries are exploring small modular reactors (SMRs) to deliver clean, reliable energy to where it’s needed most.

While most progress in clean energy adoption in Africa has focused on solar and wind, a growing number of countries are now turning to nuclear power, specifically small modular and micro reactors, as a complementary, locally adaptable solution.

According to Robert Lisinge, a technology, innovation and connectivity expert, Africa’s SMR ambitions can be achieved through “synchronised planning at regional and national levels.”

“There is a need to conceptualise and potentially develop regional nuclear projects that involve perhaps multiple countries.”

That’s the vision emerging from Kigali, Rwanda, where policymakers, engineers and experts gathered between June 30 and July 1 for the Nuclear Energy Innovation Summit for Africa.

The continent, they agreed, is no longer just exploring nuclear options, it is laying the groundwork for a new generation of energy solutions designed for Africa’s infrastructure realities.

“Across the continent today, we have 15 percent of generation, 40 GW of power, that cannot be delivered simply because of infrastructure issues, curtailment, and grids not being available, sometimes for 800 to 1,000 hours per year,” said Yohannes Hailu, Economic Affairs Officer at the UN Economic Commission for Africa.

Small Modular Reactors, which typically produce under 300MW, offer a potential workaround.

Built in factories and shipped to site, they can be installed close to the point of use, mining sites, industrial parks, or off-grid communities, cutting the need for extensive transmission infrastructure.

With more than 600 million Africans still living in the dark and demand rising from sectors like mining and manufacturing, the interest in SMRs is gaining speed.

Yet, in Africa, this is not just talk. From Ghana to Kenya to South Africa, governments are moving beyond feasibility studies and into tangible action, backed by policy shifts, skills development, and international partnerships.

Ghana, for example, has signed a framework agreement with U.S.-based Regnum Technology Group and NuScale Power to deploy up to 12 NuScale VOYGR-12 SMR modules. Each module will initially produce 50MW, with plans to scale up to 77MW, delivering nearly 924MW when fully deployed.

Beyond generation capacity, Ghana is building a foundation to become a regional hub for nuclear training and localization. With U.S. government collaboration, the country has launched the region’s first NuScale Energy Exploration Centre (E2 Centre) in Accra—a state-of-the-art facility that simulates full-scale nuclear operations and includes a welding certification lab.

The centre will provide hands-on training for Ghanaian engineers and technicians and is linked to academic institutions like Texas A&M University. It’s also laying the foundation for local nuclear supply chains, making Ghana a potential first-mover in West Africa’s nuclear ecosystem.

Officials aim to build up to 1,000MW of nuclear capacity by 2034. According to Ghana’s Nuclear Power Institute, the country is also in the process of negotiating a “123 Agreement” with the U.S. for long-term civilian nuclear cooperation and trade.

In South Africa, home to the continent’s only commercial nuclear facility, Koeberg, the focus has shifted from large-scale expansion to a locally designed high-temperature SMR known as the HTMR-100.

The project, supported by domestic firms and Chinese partners, already has a financing plan close to US$500 million.

Rwanda is also positioning itself as a launchpad for experimental nuclear technology in East Africa. The government has signed agreements with U.S.-based NANO Nuclear Energy and the Canada-Germany firm Dual Fluid to pilot microreactors in the 2 to 10 megawatts range.

These units could provide off-grid communities or specialized industries with reliable power, serving as test cases for broader deployment.

“SMRs could supply clean, reliable energy to creditworthy mining operations, enabling value addition to products for global markets,” according to Brian Dlamini, Planning Engineer for the Southern Africa Power Pool.

Even countries without active deployment plans are laying the foundation.

Nigeria is modernizing its regulatory frameworks and has joined the U.S.-backed FIRST program, which helps countries prepare for advanced nuclear technologies.

Kenya, aiming to commission its first nuclear plant by 2034, hosted Africa’s first IAEA-led SMR School in May 2025 and has launched its own SMR feasibility studies.

The geopolitical landscape is also rapidly evolving as global powers race to gain a foothold in Africa’s nuclear future.

Egypt’s nuclear ambitions have received a major boost with the El-Dabaa plant reaching a key milestone in July. A Russia-backed project, El-Dabaa saw the installation of a 480-tonne core catcher, an essential passive safety system designed to prevent reactor meltdown.

The US$30 billion project will deliver four reactors of 1,200MW each, with the first expected to come online by 2028. Egypt’s long-term plan aims to install 4,800MW of nuclear capacity by 2035.

Rosatom, the Russian state energy corporation, is leading the build, but Egypt has also signed nuclear energy cooperation agreements with China and South Korea, as it seeks to diversify partnerships and strengthen its technological base.

The United States, meanwhile, is accelerating engagement as seen during the U.S.-Africa Nuclear Energy Summit. Held in Nairobi in 2024, the event saw agreements signed with Ghana and Kenya, including plans for reactor development, regulatory support, and nuclear workforce training.

Kenya also signed an MoU with Russia in 2025, outlining plans to start construction of its first nuclear power plant by 2027 with a projected capacity of 1,000MW.

China, too, is pushing aggressively. At the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), China and Nigeria inked a deal to expand nuclear energy cooperation. BloombergNEF reports that China approved 11 new domestic reactor projects in 2024 alone and plans to become the world’s top nuclear generator by 2030.

Projections from the Nuclear Business Platform (NBP) suggest Africa could generate as much as 15,000MW of nuclear energy by 2035, led by Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda.

While no African nation currently manufactures SMRs, early steps toward localization are underway.

Despite efforts, financing remains a key challenge. With costs ranging from US$2 to US$3 million per megawatt, a single 100-megawatt SMR could run over US$200 million.

However, institutions like the African Development Bank and the West African Development Bank are beginning to study SMR financing mechanisms. Regional power pools and public-private partnerships are also being considered.

With 40 gigawatts of energy capacity stuck in limbo due to poor infrastructure, SMRs offer a way to bypass bottlenecks and deliver power where it’s needed.

Industrial parks, mining zones, and remote towns are emerging as early targets. SMRs could also support desalination projects, mini-grids, and even green hydrogen development.

The consensus in Kigali was unmistakable. Small and micro modular reactors represent a transformative opportunity for the continent. But seizing it will require coordinated investment in policy, finance, and infrastructure.

A 2025 report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that nuclear energy will reach a record high this year, with 63 reactors representing more than 70 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity under construction globally.