The U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the TotalEnergies U-17 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship purposes, is an annual youth association football competition organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for its nations consisting of players under the age of 17. It serves as the African qualification tournament for the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
In 1985, FIFA created a World Cup tournament for players under 17 years of age, but CAF organized a knock-out home-and-away qualification competition so as to qualify participants there. In 1995, CAF upgraded the competition into a full standalone competition hosted by a country and named it the African U-17 Championship. On 6 August 2015, the CAF Executive Committee decided to change the tournament's name to the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations. The tournament's name on its official logo after the announcement was however depicted as the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations in line with the senior version, the Africa Cup of Nations.
On 21 July 2016, French energy and petroleum giant TotalEnergies (formerly Total S.A) secured an 8-year sponsorship package from CAF to support its competitions.
Beginning with the 2023 edition, the tournament will be contested by 12 teams. It would have been in effect from the 2021 edition, but that was cancelled by CAF due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa and its impact.
Note: no 4th-place finish in 2001 due to Guinea's disqualification.