Malawi has become one of the biggest recipients of international renewable energy finance among the world's least-developed countries. But for most of its people, the lights have never come on.
Official data reveal a widening gap between investment and effect, raising difficult questions about why millions remain in the dark.
Only 16% of the country's population is connected to the national electricity grid, according to Tracking SDG 7: The Energy Progress Report 2026, placing Malawi among the three least-electrified nations in the world. Only Chad and South Sudan record lower levels of grid access.
The contrast is striking.
In 2024 alone, Malawi received $245 million in international public financing for renewable energy, more than almost every other least-developed country. Only Angola and Ethiopia secured larger allocations.
The investment was intended to help expand access to electricity and accelerate the transition to cleaner energy. The latest global data show that roughly 18 million Malawians live without a grid connection.
The disconnect lies at the centre of Malawi's energy story: substantial international financing has flowed into the sector but electricity access has improved far more slowly than many expected.
The figures come from a report jointly produced by the International Energy Agency, the International Renewable Energy Agency, the World Bank, the World Health Organisation and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Released in June 2026, it paints a sobering picture not only for Malawi but for sub-Saharan Africa, where progress towards universal electricity access has slowed and governments must dramatically accelerate connections to meet the global target for 2030.
Malawi's case stands out because the country has attracted unusually high levels of donor support.
The World Bank recently completed the Malawi Electricity Access Project, reporting that it had connected nearly two million people to electricity through a combination of grid expansion and privately supplied solar home systems, exceeding its original target.
At the same time, another World Bank-backed programme, worth more than $250m, aims to expand access to clean energy across the country. But the investments have not translated into widespread access to reliable electricity.
One reason is that much of the funding has been used to preserve an ageing power system rather than build a significantly larger one.
Brave Mhone, the president of the Renewable Energy Industries Association of Malawi, said much of the money entering the sector was spent rehabilitating ageing infrastructure and supporting small off-grid solar systems instead of expanding electricity generation and the national grid.
"We can talk of a lot of money in value but the output will be limited because the majority is not going into new generation or expanding the grid but maintaining what we already have," he said.
The distinction matters.
When off-grid technologies such as solar home systems are included, around 26% of Malawians have some form of electricity access. But off-grid systems typically provide enough power for lighting, charging cellphones and running small appliances.
They cannot reliably support factories, irrigation systems, hospitals or businesses that depend on continuous electricity. For a country seeking industrial growth, the difference between basic electricity access and dependable grid power is enormous.
The challenge begins with Malawi's electricity system itself.
Nearly nine out of every 10 megawatts generated nationally come from hydroelectric stations along the Shire River, leaving the country heavily dependent on a single river basin. Years of ageing equipment, recurring droughts and rising electricity demand have repeatedly exposed the vulnerability of the model.
The state-owned Electricity Generation Company has reported that equipment failures have periodically reduced available generating capacity, contributing to nationwide power shortages.
Maintaining the ageing infrastructure consumes resources that might otherwise be used to expand generation. Domestic financing constraints make the situation even more difficult.
Malawi's government operates under severe fiscal pressure and remains dependent on donor funding. In the 2025-26 financial year, the energy sector faced a financing shortfall exceeding 95% of identified requirements, leaving international partners to shoulder much of the investment needed to modernise the system.
Even the support falls far short of what the country says it needs.
Under Malawi's National Energy Compact, developed with the World Bank under the Mission 300 initiative, the country estimates it will require$5.5 billion to increase electricity access from about 26% today to 70% by 2030.
Only a fraction of that funding has been secured.
Former Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi chief executive Kandi Padambo believes the pace of electrification must increase dramatically if the targets are to be met.
He estimates that Malawi would need to expand electricity access by roughly 12 percentage points each year over the remainder of the decade, far faster than current trends suggest.
Money alone, however, is unlikely to solve the problem.
Nearly a decade after Malawi restructured its electricity sector to attract private investment, progress has been slower than anticipated. The reforms split the former state utility into separate companies responsible for generation and transmission and distribution, while opening the market to independent power producers.
More than 80 developers have signed memorandums of understanding with the government but only a handful have progressed to power purchase agreements and even fewer projects have reached construction.
The regulatory framework exists. International financing exists. Investor interest exists.
What is missing is the rapid expansion of electricity generation and transmission needed to connect millions more households. The consequences extend well beyond household lighting.
Reliable electricity underpins economic development. It powers factories, preserves medicines, enables irrigation, supports digital services and allows businesses to operate beyond daylight hours. Without it, economic transformation becomes far more difficult.
The divide is particularly stark in rural Malawi, where more than four out of five people live. While urban electrification has expanded steadily, rural communities continue to record some of the lowest access rates in Africa.
A solar home system can illuminate a classroom or charge a cellphone. It cannot reliably operate medical equipment, run agro-processing machinery or power small industries that create jobs and raise incomes.
For millions of rural households, electricity remains a basic necessity rather than an engine of development.
Regional integration could eventually ease some of the constraints.
Malawi has signed agreements to import electricity from neighbouring countries, including Zambia and Mozambique but the transmission infrastructure needed to make the imports possible has yet to be completed.
The National Energy Compact proposes almost 2 000km of new transmission lines linking Malawi to regional power pools in southern and eastern Africa. The connections would improve reliability, diversify electricity supplies and reduce dependence on hydropower from the Shire River.
But they, too, depend on closing a multibillion-dollar financing gap.
The government is also counting on the 350MW Mpatamanga Gorge Hydropower Project, one of the country's largest planned infrastructure investments. Supported by the World Bank and private investors, the project promises to substantially increase generation capacity.
Even under the most optimistic timetable, however, it is unlikely to be completed before the government's 2030 electrification target. That leaves Malawi confronting a difficult reality.
The country has succeeded in attracting international climate and energy finance at a scale that many low-income nations would envy. Donor funding alone cannot overcome ageing infrastructure, limited domestic investment, delayed private-sector projects and decades of underdeveloped transmission networks.
The result is a paradox that reaches far beyond Malawi.
Across Africa, billions of dollars are being mobilised for the energy transition. But the measure of success is not how much money is committed; it is how many homes, schools, hospitals and businesses receive reliable electricity.
Closing the gap will depend on the government, the World Bank and private investors delivering the generation and transmission projects they have promised.
In Malawi, that gap remains wide.
Collins Mtika is a veteran journalist and the Mail & Guardian’s special correspondent in Mzuzu, Malawi. This article was made possible by a partnership with the Centre for Investigative Journalism Malawi (CIJM) — www.investigative-malawi.org