For millions of households across Central Africa, cooking remains closely tied to income, health and access to basic infrastructure. Firewood and charcoal are still widely used, particularly by rural and low-income communities, making clean cooking a social challenge as much as an energy one.
The scale of the problem is enormous. The International Energy Agency's Clean Cooking in Africa 2026 report says nearly 2 billion people worldwide still lack access to clean cooking, with about half of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Under the IEA's Stated Policies Scenario, around 1.8 billion people could still lack clean cooking access in 2030. The agency estimates that closing Africa's clean-cooking gap would require about $4 billion in annual investment.
The health cost is equally significant. The World Health Organization estimates that household air pollution causes around 2.9 million premature deaths annually, based on 2021 data. An earlier WHO estimate put the figure at about 3.2 million deaths in 2019. Women and children face a disproportionate burden because they spend more time around household cooking areas.
The problem goes beyond technology
LPG, electricity, biogas and other clean cooking technologies already exist. The harder question is whether households can afford to adopt and continue using them.
For low-income families, the cost of a stove or LPG cylinder is only the first barrier. Regular refilling, fuel prices, transport costs and the availability of nearby distributors can determine whether a household actually remains on a clean cooking system. This makes affordability and reliability as important as access itself. In March 2026, LPG import prices in developing economies where the fuel is widely used for cooking rose by an average of 80%, prompting governments to intervene to stabilize prices. Such shocks show how quickly household cooking costs can become a policy problem.
A particularly difficult challenge in Central Africa
The region starts from an extremely low base. In 2024, clean-cooking access in the Central African Republic remained below 10%, according to UN Economic Commission for Africa analysis based on WHO data. The Democratic Republic of Congo faces a similarly severe gap: more than 95% of its population lacked access to clean cooking in 2023, according to the Clean Cooking Alliance.
The contrast with some better-positioned countries in the region also matters. Cameroon, Gabon and the Republic of Congo have been developing LPG, gas and electricity infrastructure, but the existence of domestic gas resources or LPG production does not automatically mean that households have affordable access to the fuel. That distinction is critical. Natural gas reserves are an upstream resource; LPG is a processed product; clean cooking access is a household service. Moving from one stage to the next requires processing capacity, storage, cylinders, distribution networks and, ultimately, a customer who can afford the next refill.
The last-mile problem
Central Africa's geography makes that final step particularly difficult. Large territories, dispersed rural populations and weak transport networks raise the cost of delivering cylinders and other cooking technologies outside major cities.
Public policy therefore matters. Subsidies can make LPG and equipment affordable, but poorly designed subsidies can strain government budgets or discourage private investment. More targeted support, consumer financing and pay-as-you-go models can reduce the upfront burden while allowing households to pay gradually. The design of the market matters just as much as the infrastructure. A household that receives an LPG stove but cannot afford regular refills has not achieved a durable clean-cooking transition.
The social measure of success
Central Africa's energy transition is often measured through power generation, gas production and infrastructure investment. Clean cooking requires a different metric. The real question is whether a household can afford to cook a meal every day using a cleaner and safer source of energy. That would mean less exposure to household air pollution, less time spent collecting fuel and fewer constraints on the women and children who bear much of the burden of traditional cooking.
For Central Africa, clean cooking will therefore be more than another energy-access target. It will be a test of whether the region's broader energy development is actually reaching the household level.
