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Material flow analysis is one of the developed tools to analyze regional resource utilization and efficiency, but still, no holistic analysis has been done for African sub-regions. Africa and its sub-regions are experiencing a gradual but transitional development, leading to the steady growth of resource use. This study dived into African nations' material flow accounts and conducted a statistical evaluation of material use, resource efficiency and driving forces in different sub-regions of Africa between 1980 and 2017 to investigate resource use patterns in Africa. Our results reveal significant disparities of material use and distinguishable driving forces at the sub-regional level of Africa. During the last four decades, Western and Central Africa shows the highest cumulative material consumption at 54 Gt dominated by biomass consumption, while non-metallic minerals dominate the consumption in North Africa with a compounding annual growth rate of 4.5 %. Per capita domestic material consumption (DMC) in Southern Africa experiences a declining trend from >10 t/capita to 7 t/capita per year. Per capita DMC in other three sub-regions is increasing, in which North Africa now has the highest per capita DMC at 10 t/capita per year. Using the logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI) technique, this study examines the IPAT equation in DMC at the sub-regional level of Africa. GDP growth has surpassed the impact of population growth in Southern Africa, while population growth is still the most significant driver in other three regions over a period of time. Technological factors have begun to offset material use in all sub-regions since 2000, and this offset is prominent in Southern Africa. Our results could be a basis to spur mutual communication and cooperation among African countries on the governance of sustainable resource production and use to improve the resource efficiency of African countries as a convergent and lasting trend. Image 1 • Biomass is the most used in three of the four sub-regions, except North Africa. • West and Central Africa has the highest cumulative domestic material consumption. • East Africa shows the lowest resource efficiency. • Population and affluence show regional differences in driving material use in Africa. • Efficiency improvement in Africa is mainly driven by East and Southern Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]