the reduction and rationalization of subsidies and incentives for energy supply and for energy efficiency is a complex and often controversial process approximately of those people live in rural areas mainly in subsaharan africa and south asia the low level of electrification is due to a number of factors including poverty a highlydispersed rural population a low degree of industrialization a historically inefficient energy sector and difficulties accessing capital to finance the development of modern energy sources iea biomass fuels such as firewood charcoal straw agricultural residues and animal dung supply of all energy consumed in the subsaharan african region riso most of these fuels are not traded commercially in the formal sector of the economy rather they are gathered as needed by household members or particularly in the case of charcoal may be sold via the informal sector