Electricity and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from panel data

This study examined electricity and economic growth in 30 Sub-Saharan African countries and covered the period from 1990 to 2010. Panel data were used for the analysis. Panel pooled OLS, panel FEM and GMM models were employed in the estimation of the impact of electricity on economic growth. The results show that electricity consumption has a positive and significant impact on economic growth as it is positive and significant via all the three estimation techniques. Also, labour is positive and significant in all the three estimates revealing that labour contributes to the economic growth of Sub-Saharan Africa. Physical capital on the other hand has is negative under fixed and GMM but statistically significant in all three estimation techniques.