Liberia’s electricity consumption in 2023 was just 71 kWh per person, compared with a global average of 3,794 kWh—less than 2% of that benchmark. Low-carbon electricity generation amounted to 24 kWh per person, equivalent to roughly a third of consumption. The supplied figures do not identify the sources of the remaining electricity, so it cannot all be classified as fossil-based electricity. Such limited electricity availability can constrain healthcare, education, refrigeration and business activity, while making it harder to expand industry and digital services. Increasing clean electricity supply is therefore essential for improving living standards and supporting economic development.

Is Electricity Growing in Liberia?

Liberia’s latest figures show a substantial shortfall relative to its historical electricity records, rather than a new peak. Consumption of 71 kWh per person in 2023 was 344 kWh below the record of 415 kWh set in 1980—a decline of about 83%. Low-carbon generation was also far below its 1980 record: 24 kWh per person compared with 156 kWh, a reduction of 132 kWh, or about 85%. These comparisons do not establish whether consumption increased in the latest year, but they clearly show that Liberia has considerable ground to recover. Sustained growth in clean electricity is needed to support wider access and future electrification.

Suggestions

Liberia can expand low-carbon electricity by prioritizing solar installations, strengthening its grid and developing solar-powered mini-grids for communities beyond existing networks. Among the supplied examples, South Africa offers a useful African reference, generating about 20 TWh from solar and 12 TWh each from wind and nuclear. Vietnam’s 21 TWh of solar generation also provides a tropical reference for studying solar deployment. Liberia could learn from these regions’ experience with procurement, workforce development and grid connections, while assessing wind opportunities against local measurements. Nuclear should also be considered in long-term electricity planning and regional cooperation: France’s roughly 376 TWh and South Africa’s 12 TWh illustrate its contribution to substantial clean electricity supplies. These figures demonstrate generation scale, not directly transferable targets for Liberia.

History

The supplied history shows that Liberia’s recorded low-carbon electricity changes were entirely in hydropower. Generation was broadly unchanged in the early 1980s, before falling by about 0.1 TWh in 1984 and recovering by the same amount in 1985. It then showed no recorded annual change from 1986 through 1989. The next listed increase came in 2018, when hydropower generation rose by about 0.1 TWh. From 2019 through 2023, every listed annual change was zero—a disappointing lack of further growth given Liberia’s very low electricity consumption. The intervening years are not supplied, so this is a partial history rather than a continuous record.

Electricity Imports and Exports

Balance of Trade