Africa: A World Bank initiative to expand electricity access in Africa has connected more than 50 million people in its first two years.
Mission 300 was launched in 2024 with the goal of providing electricity to 300 million Africans by 2030. According to the World Bank and the African Development Bank, the programme has already reached nearly one fifth of its target across 40 countries.
The initiative is now delivering electricity access at almost twice the pace recorded when it began. If successful, it would provide power to more than half of the estimated 565 million people in Africa who currently lack access to electricity.
Africa accounts for more than four fifths of the world’s population without power. In countries such as South Sudan, Burundi and Chad, electrification rates remain among the lowest globally. Limited electricity access continues to affect productivity, healthcare, education, business activity and wider economic growth.
Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank, said Mission 300 is helping countries move faster, connect more people and build a platform that can continue beyond the initiative itself. He said electricity is not only about power, but also about the opportunities it enables.
The programme evaluates energy projects and helps mobilise financing for those that qualify. Its wider goal is to raise at least $90 B from public, private and multilateral sources.
According to the lenders, at least 7.5 million people in Tanzania, 4.6 million in Ethiopia and a similar number in Nigeria have already benefited from the plan.
Source: Financial Post
