Africa risks missing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to provide clean cooking energy unless governments and investors urgently fix financing, transport, and regulatory bottlenecks, industry leaders warned at the G20 Africa Energy Investment Forum on Friday.
Executives said the continent’s long-delayed transition from wood, charcoal, and kerosene to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) remains hampered by fragmented infrastructure, offline refineries, and limited access to climate finance.
In South Africa, LPG demand sits “just below 500,000 metric tons,” yet supply is constrained by offline refineries and a patchwork transport network, Sesakho Magadla, acting CEO of PetroSA, told the forum. Efforts to bring the Gas-to-Liquids refinery in Mossel Bay back online by 2026 are a priority, she said, alongside proposed rail upgrades linking Saldanha Bay to Mozambique to ease congestion.
Private-sector operators echoed the call for transport reform. Tamsin Rankin Donaldson, head of marketing at Petredec, said limited terminal capacity and poor logistics add “a 10–20% premium” to LPG costs.
Petredec is building a new terminal in Tanga, Tanzania, and exploring rail links from Richards Bay to inland markets in South Africa. Rankin Donaldson said governments must streamline permitting processes to accelerate such projects.
Financing remains a critical barrier. Titus Mathe, CEO of the South African National Energy Development Institute, said investors lack reliable data to quantify emissions reductions from clean cooking. He proposed a continent-wide LPG financing facility backed by the African Union, G20, and global institutions to reach last-mile users.
Carbon-credit rules also pose challenges. Anibor Kragha, executive secretary of the African Refiners & Distributors Association, said LPG is largely excluded from emissions credit frameworks, while clean cookstoves qualify. “We have to put carbon credits as part of the LPG discussion,” he said, noting this limits rapid scale-up.
While discussions focused on continent-wide issues, Ghana provides a practical example of both progress and persistent gaps. Data shows roughly 37% of households now use LPG for cooking, with adoption concentrated in urban areas at over 50%, while rural communities lag around 15%.
Despite government efforts to expand distribution, many households still face unreliable supply, underscoring the urgent need for infrastructure upgrades and supportive financing.
Industry voices at the forum stressed that achieving universal clean cooking by 2040 would require tens of millions of new connections annually, roughly seven times the current pace. Without rapid investments, Africa risks failing to deliver clean, affordable cooking energy to millions.
