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This paper examines the relationship between per capita energy consumption and per capita income and the determinants of this relationship using a panel data sample of 29 Sub-Saharan African countries over the period from 1980 to 2011. We explicitly account for country heterogeneity by using a panel data heterogeneous coefficients model. The findings suggest that the energy-income nexus is very heterogeneous and an environmental Kuznets curve is found for only four countries. This heterogeneity is also emphasized in the effects of variables that influence this relationship.