For the first time ever, there are fewer than a billion people without electricity globally. But much of that progress has been uneven, and has happened away from Africa. Indeed, around three-quarters of the half a billion people who have gained access to electricity since 2011 are in Asia.

While the electrification rate in Africa has also increased—now at 43%, it has not kept pace with the continent’s growing population. As such, the population without access to electricity still stands at the big 600 million number.

A continent-wide trend of setting low tariff prices also renders power utilities bankrupt and unable to provide better services to grid connections that exist: sub Saharan African countries have annual power outages of up to 4,600 hours, World Bank says. And shoring up that lack of stable power with back-up diesel generators comes at high health and economic costs.

Full article: Quartz Africa