Access to electricity in the Great Lakes region has been growing over the last few years albeit slowly. It increased by about 3.2% per year from 2000 to 2019. Notwithstanding, the region still lags far behind in achieving universal access to electricity. Generally, people in urban areas had significantly higher access to electricity than those in rural areas which host majority of the population.

The regional average access rate is still low at 36% yet more than half of the countries fall below it. Furthermore, only Kenya, Congo and Rwanda were above the Sub-Saharan average access rate of 48%. Overall, more than 239 million people in the region (63%) still lack access to electricity and for the majority, traditional biomass is the key energy source.