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Business Reporter
The Africa Energy Summit will take place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from January 27 to 28, focusing on mobilising financial resources for electricity projects.
Supported by the African Development Bank Group (AfDB), the World Bank and the African Union, the summit will be attended by African Heads of State and government, private sector leaders, development partners and donors, sector experts, civil society organisations and members of academia.
The summit aims to mobilise and secure the financial resources, partnerships, and political commitment required to achieve the ambitious Mission 300 plan and consolidate progress towards universal electrification in Africa.
Launched in April 2024 by the AfDB and the World Bank, Mission 300 aims to provide access to electricity to 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.
It will combine increased infrastructure investment and comprehensive policy reforms across the entire electricity supply chain, to transform lives and improve livelihoods and communities across the continent.
Nearly 600 million Africans have no access to electricity, representing about 83 percent of the global energy deficit.
During the summit, countries are expected to unveil National Energy Compacts, outlining ambitious targets and key reforms tailored to their unique contexts.
Access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy is critical for powering Africa, transforming economies, and reaching people’s development aspirations, according to the World Bank.
Connecting people, businesses, and economies to electricity not only changes lives, powers hospitals and schools, it also creates job opportunities and fosters investments and trade.
“Mission 300 aims to accelerate the pace of electrification in Sub-Saharan Africa while ensuring that transition to more diversified and cleaner sources of energy meets growing demand, brings economic growth, and creates jobs,” said the World Bank.
“Efforts are also focused on investing in generation, transmission, distribution, regional interconnection, and sector reform to ensure quality, reliability, and affordability of power supply.”
Mission 300, the World Bank said will only be realised with partnerships while reaching the goal will require governments to do more on sector reforms and make electricity utilities financially viable. The private sector to step in and scale up investments in distributed energy solutions, as well as grid-connected power generation and new models for transmission and distribution; and partners including other multilateral development banks and philanthropies to mobilise more public and concessional financing for both on-grid and off-grid electrification.
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