Africa holds billions of barrels of oil, trillions of cubic metres of gas and produces most of the world’s cobalt and manganese for electric car batteries.
This week, energy ministers, investors and oil executives are meeting in Cape Town for African Energy Week, which runs until October 16. The conference focuses on investment in oil and gas, energy finance and ending energy poverty.
In this visual explainer, Al Jazeera maps where Africa’s oil, gas and critical minerals are found, how its electricity is generated and who still goes without it.
How much oil does Africa have?
Africa holds about 125 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, representing 7.2 percent of the global total. Proven reserves are oil that has been discovered and can be extracted commercially with existing technology, but is still in the ground.
Libya and Nigeria account for nearly 70 percent of Africa’s reserves, with 48.4 billion and 36.9 billion barrels, respectively. Algeria ranks third, with 12.2 billion barrels. Angola follows with 7.78 billion barrels, while South Sudan and Egypt hold 3.75 billion and 3.3 billion barrels, respectively.
Nigeria was Africa’s largest oil producer in 2024, accounting for about 23 percent of the continent’s output. Algeria and Angola followed with about 17 percent each, and together the three produced 56 percent of Africa’s oil. The top five producers accounted for more than 80 percent. Africa as a whole produced 7.6 percent of the world’s crude oil, roughly in line with its share of global reserves.
Libya, which holds Africa’s largest proven reserves, ranked only fourth in production. Italy’s Eni, France’s TotalEnergies and Spain’s Repsol are among the foreign companies operating in the country, where political disputes and blockades have repeatedly disrupted output.
Where are Africa’s natural gas reserves?
Africa held almost 18 trillion cubic metres of proven natural gas reserves at the end of 2023.
Nigeria and Algeria hold about 58 percent of the total, followed by Mozambique with 2.84 trillion cubic metres, Egypt with 2.21 trillion and Libya with 1.51 trillion.
Algeria and Nigeria are also among Africa’s leading gas exporters, while much of Mozambique’s reserves, discovered offshore in the 2010s, remain largely undeveloped.
Where do the critical minerals come from?
The African continent supplies a large share of the minerals used in electric vehicles, batteries and renewable energy technologies.
In 2025, African countries accounted for 71.2 percent of global cobalt production and 72.4 percent of manganese production.
Cobalt is used in rechargeable batteries. Manganese is mainly used to strengthen steel, but it is also used in some electric vehicle batteries and in batteries that store renewable energy.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo produces nearly 70 percent of the world’s cobalt. Some of it is dug by hand by artisanal miners, and Amnesty International has documented dangerous and often deadly conditions in some of the country’s mines.
South Africa produces nearly 38 percent of global manganese, followed by Gabon with nearly 25 percent. Together with Ghana, the three countries account for 72.4 percent of global production.
Zimbabwe, Africa’s largest lithium producer, accounted for 9.6 percent of global production in 2025. Lithium is used in rechargeable batteries that power electric vehicles and store electricity from solar and wind.
Madagascar, Mozambique and Tanzania produced a combined 222,000 tonnes of natural graphite in 2025, or 11.9 percent of the global total. Graphite is used in the anodes of most lithium-ion batteries, the negative electrodes that store and release energy, as well as in steel manufacturing, lubricants and pencils.
How many African countries produce electricity from renewables?
Renewable energy accounted for all electricity generated in Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2024. Uganda, Namibia and Eswatini each generated more than 96 percent from renewables, mostly hydropower.
At the other end, renewables made up less than 5 percent in Algeria, Libya, Niger and Tunisia, which rely mainly on gas or oil.
Ethiopia’s electricity comes mostly from hydropower, led by the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, Africa’s largest hydroelectric project. The dam began generating power in 2022 and was officially inaugurated in September 2025.
Where do people have access to electricity?
In 2024, six African countries reported universal electricity access: Algeria, Egypt, Mauritius, Morocco, Seychelles and Tunisia. Together, they are home to about 215 million people, or roughly 14 percent of Africa’s population.
Elsewhere, access varies widely. In South Sudan, only 5.4 percent of people had electricity. The figure was 15.6 percent in Malawi and 22.5 percent in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, even though the DRC generates all its power from renewables.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, had an access rate of 62.5 percent, leaving roughly 85 million people without electricity, the largest number of any country in the world.
In rural areas, where access is far lower than in cities, many families still rely on kerosene lamps, candles or torches to light their homes after dark.
Africa has vast energy resources, from oil and natural gas to the minerals powering the global energy transition. Yet more than 560 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity, accounting for about 86 percent of the global total, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).