Mission 300 aims to electrify more African homes. (Image credit: AfDB)
An initiative to connect 300 million more Africans to electricity by 2030 has won new cash pledges worth over US$8bn, following the Africa Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam this week.
The summit was organised by the Tanzanian government and Mission 300, a collaboration between the African Development Bank (AfDB), the World Bank Group and global partners to address Africa’s electricity gap using new technology and innovative financing.
New funds were pledged from lenders such as the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the Beijing-based Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), among others.
AfDB president Dr Akinwumi Adesina called for active involvement and collaboration among all stakeholders, from bilateral and multilateral institutions to the private sector.
“This is mission critical,” he told delegates gathered at the event. “Our mission here is to say we need everybody.”
Nearly 600 million Africans still lack access to electricity, a critical resource for economic development and job creation.
“With power, Africa will not just meet expectations but exceed them, becoming a competitive and prosperous continent.”
Mission 300 will incorporate robust accountability measures, including country-specific monitoring and evaluation systems and the Africa Energy Regulatory Index to track progress.
“This is all about accountability, transparency,” said Adesina.
About half of planned new connections will come from existing grids, according to officials at the summit, while the rest will come from a range of renewable energy sources.
Donor foundations are also expected to support the collaboration, with Rajiv Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation, calling on global philanthropists to get behind the idea.
“What is at stake is the future of African economies, the future of African young people and the future of our world,” he said, adding that his foundation was committing US$65mn to the programme.
United Nations deputy secretary-general Amina Mohammed said that achieving these targets would also require significant financial engineering and private sector engagement.
“The private sector’s got to lean in and it won’t lean in if the message is that your finance environment is not conducive to us,” she said, calling for reforms in credit rating systems and financial architecture.
“When you want to put together the financing for energy it is not easy and it requires many people at the table in parallel with what we are doing, the policy and the regulation, designing these pipelines and getting the money ready.”
There is also an environmental dimension behind the initiative, with an emphasis on the toll of traditional cooking methods based on firewood and charcoal, resulting in the estimated deaths of 600,000 women and children annually due to smoke exposure.
World Bank president Ajay Banga expressed optimism about Mission 300, saying its objectives are achievable through hard work, particularly in ensuring a conducive environment for the private sector to participate.
He emphasised the need for predictability of currencies, regulatory frameworks and land acquisition to incentivise investments that support the initiative.
Among the countries to unveil new or additional contributions to the AfDB-managed Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) as it expands energy access across Africa, including through the Mission 300 partnership were the UK, Denmark, Spain and France.
Read more about Mission 300 here
