When protests over fuel prices erupted in Kenya this May, the cause lay thousands of miles away. The war between Iran, Israel, and the United States has exposed a reality that African countries know well: energy security is increasingly shaped by events beyond their borders.

The Iran War revealed how deeply many African energy systems remain dependent on geopolitical stability elsewhere. Governments should use this crisis to accelerate structural reforms and diversify their energy systems.

Fuel shocks travel faster than electricity

Across much of West Africa, power systems remain heavily dependent on gas-fired generation and imported fuels. When global fuel prices rise, electricity costs rise with them.

Nigeria generates roughly three-quarters of its electricity from gas-fired plants, while gas supplies about two-thirds of Ghana’s electricity. Higher fuel prices place immediate pressure on utilities that are already struggling with regulated tariffs that fail to recover the full cost of supplying power. Ghana’s own energy planning documents identify fuel supply sustainability as the country’s single greatest threat to reliable electricity.

The effects of the conflict don’t stop at national borders. Nigeria and Ghana are both major suppliers of electricity through the West African Power Pool, exporting power to neighboring countries like Togo and Benin. As gas becomes more expensive, the effects ripple across regional electricity markets, raising costs for utilities, governments, businesses, and households. What begins as a geopolitical crisis thousands of miles away quickly becomes an affordability crisis at home.

Oil producers aren’t as protected as they seem

At first glance, the surge in prices might appear to benefit Africa’s oil exporters. 

Nigeria, the continent’s largest crude producer, and........

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