An Empirical Analysis of Electricity Demand in Sub-Saharan Africa Aisha Kolawole 1 , Sola Adesola 2 , Glauco De Vita 3 1,2 Faculty of Business, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford OX33 1HX 3 Faculty of Business and Law, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB Abstract: Reliable power supply is required in order to achieve socio-economic growth and development in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Recent statistics show that only one-third of the entire population in the region have access to electricity, making the region the highest in the world with people without access to modern energy. However, the region is endowed with abundant energy resources to provide the needed electricity. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyse the main determinants of electricity demand in SSA. Reliable secondary macroeconomic data were collected from publicly available and widely used sources. The data collected were analysed using Fixed Effects, Random Effects and Prais-Winsten panel data models. The results revealed that income, urbanisation and population are the main determinants of electricity demand in SSA. The study further revealed that population is the predominant factor behind electricity demand, with the highest elasticity. This study would be beneficial as an understanding of the factors that influence electricity demand through the reported elasticities, can help policymakers prepare evidence-based and more effective energy demand management, to meet the electricity need of consumers in the region. The study recommends the need for stringent energy conservation policies through effective energy efficiency practice, to ensure that increase in energy use does not lead to further greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, and the electricity produced is well utilised. Keywords: Electricity demand, Energy demand, Panel data model, Renewables, SSA Introduction Energy demand modelling plays a crucial role in effective energy planning, strategy formulation and sound energy policy recommendations (Bhattacharyya and Timilsina, 2010). The theory of demand provides a useful account of how changes in income and other factors, which influence the demand for energy, can be modelled. This has been used to model energy demand in both developed and developing countries. The need for a comprehensive and up-to-date electricity demand modelling in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is due to many compelling reasons. First, the population of SSA is estimated by the World Bank to be 936.1million, which is 13% of the World population (Kebede et al., 2010). However, the stated population only accounts for 4% of the total global energy consumed (IEA, 2014). Most of the energy consumed is derived from solid biomass like fuelwood and charcoal which accounts for more than 75% of the total energy consumed in the region (Lambe et al., 2015). Second, the majority of the population in SSA live in rural