KEY POINTS
- A single forex trade in Africa consumes approximately 41.6 watt-hours (Wh) of electricity, equivalent to 0.0416 kWh, with an estimated cost of a few US cents, depending on the electricity tariff in the region.
- The energy consumption is broken down into device and connection (15 Wh), platform/server overhead (20 Wh), and data center and cooling overhead (6.6 Wh).
- While the energy cost per trade may seem negligible, scaled across many trades, it can add up, and African traders may indirectly incur higher social and environmental costs due to the reliance on less clean energy sources in some regions.
When we talk about a single forex trade in Africa, we typically imagine someone hitting “buy” or “sell” on a laptop or mobile phone.
What we don’t usually think about is the hidden energy cost behind that click.
In this article we’ll unpack the big picture, walk through how to estimate the energy footprint of a trade, and reflect on why it matters for African markets.
What drives energy use
Every forex trade run on a chain of infrastructure: local device (computer/smartphone) → internet connection → servers at the broker or platform → data centers where those servers are housed. Each link consumes electricity.
On a global scale data center alone accounts for roughly 1 % to 1.3 % of global electricity demand. That gives us a sense of scale.
In Africa specifically, grid stability, variations in power cost, and reliance on backup generation (like diesel) make the cost and carbon intensity of that energy higher than in many developed markets. Forex trading activity across the continent continues to grow, which means its collective digital footprint and energy use are also increasing.
So while one trade might feel like “just a click,” it taps into real‐world watt-hours.
Putting numbers on one trade
Since there is no public study that isolates the energy for a single forex trade in Africa, we must make a rough estimate using available proxies.
Device and connection
Suppose a trader uses a laptop drawing ~60 Watts and is connected for say 15 minutes including research, trade and confirmation. That’s 0.25 hours × 60 W = ~15 Wh (watt-hours).
Platform/server overhead
The trade is processed by the broker’s server infrastructure plus network equipment. Let’s conservatively estimate another 20 Wh.
Data center and cooling overhead
The server might draw say 100 W of computing power for that trade’s batch of work, plus cooling/power‐loss overhead could double that to 200 W. If the actual work attributable to this one trade is say 2 minutes of that server’s time (0.033 h), then 0.033 h × 200 W ≈ 6.6 Wh.
Summing:
15 Wh (device) + 20 Wh (server processing) + 6.6 Wh (data centre overhead) ≈ 41.6 Wh.
Converted to more familiar units: 41.6 Wh = 0.0416 kWh. If electricity cost is about US $0.12/kWh (global average is lower but African tariffs may be higher), then cost ≈ US $0.005. In South Africa, for example, domestic tariffs might be ~US$0.10–0.15/kWh, so the cost per trade is a few US cents.
Of course this is a rough ballpark. If the trader uses mobile phone (say 5 W for 15 minutes = ~1.25 Wh) and the broker is highly optimised, the energy could be much lower; if the trade triggers heavier computation (algorithmic trading) it could be higher.
Why this matters for traders and African markets
Even though each single trade seems negligible, if thousands of trades happen every minute the total adds up. For brokers and fintech hubs in Africa looking to scale, energy efficiency becomes a real business cost.
Also from a sustainability standpoint, if power comes from less clean sources (diesel generators, coal‐heavy grids) then the carbon footprint per trade is higher than in cleaner grids. So African traders may indirectly incur higher social and environmental cost even if their out-of-pocket cost is low.
Finally, for retail traders it’s worth recognizing that the real “cost” of trading isn’t just spread, commission, slippage but also invisible infrastructure costs that influence platform stability, server latency (especially if power interruptions occur) and ultimately user experience.
Take-away
A single forex trade in Africa likely consumes on the order of tens of watt-hours of electricity (say ~0.04 kWh) and costs a few US cents in electricity. That makes it minor per trade for the individual. But scaled across many trades, plus factoring in infrastructure resilience and carbon intensity, the energy dimension becomes non-trivial.
