Energy security, governance quality, and economic performance in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

This study investigates the role of energy security and governance quality in economic performance using 22 sub-Saharan African countries between 2000 and 2020. It explores Poisson Pseudo-maximum Likelihood Estimator. More so, five measures of energy security (accessibility, affordability, acceptability, availability, and developability) and four measures of governance quality (political, economic, institutional, and aggregate) are considered. The results show that only the availability and developability of energy security significantly and positively enhance economic performance. Other measures have little or no effect on economic performance. Additionally, measures of governance quality largely and positively facilitate economic performance. On interaction terms, governance quality was found to significantly enhance the effectiveness of the availability aspects of energy security on economic performance. However, the governance structure is still very weak to foster the effectiveness of other aspects of energy security in the growth process. Thus, countries need to be proactive in strengthening their governance structures to harness the benefits associated with energy security for sustainable economic growth. Specifically, policymakers need to prioritize policies that will enhance energy availability and developability, promote energy sustainability and equality, disincentivize high-emission energy sources, strengthen governance roles in energy security, and mitigate oil price volatility.