Chad

Chad has a population of approximately 21.6 million and a nominal GDP of US$21.47 billion in 2025 which translates to a GDP per capita of about US$993.98. Although agriculture remains the country's largest employer of labour in the country, oil continues to play a critical role to the economy. The sector contributes about 14.7% of the GDP and generates more than 60% of export revenue thus, leaving country’s economy highly exposed to fluctuations in oil production and international crude prices.

Against this backdrop, Chad's long-term development agenda is centered on reducing its dependence on oil while strengthening other productive sectors, particularly agriculture and infrastructure. However, with crude exports still providing the bulk of government revenue, sustaining production from a maturing oil sector remains critical to financing the country's broader economic and social development objectives.

Historically, there was a significant reliance on oil and diesel-fired thermal plants which made up about 125MW of installed capacity. However, recent developments in solar power plants have added about 110MW which in addition to the fossils and recent advancement in off-grid power generation culminates to a total installed capacity of 285MW for the entire country.

Electricity access remains particularly constrained in Chad, with only about 12% of the population connected to the grid - the second lowest in Africa. There is a significant concentration of the installed capacity in N’Djamena, the country’s capital, leaving many other parts of the country disconnected from the national grid. This is indicative of the large gap that exists between energy demand and available supply and closing that gap remains the central focus of the government. Closing that gap extends far beyond increasing generation capacity; it will also depend on strengthening transmission and distribution networks and scaling off-grid solutions to reach underserved communities. The government's Desert-to-Power programme (project Yeleen) is one of such initiatives - driving up to 50MW of offgrid solar capacity leveraging the presence of the Sahara desert within the country’s borders.