Access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy is critical for powering economies, delivering essential services, and spurring job creation for Africa’s growing population. With nearly 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa living without access to electricity, Mission 300 is an ambitious initiative to connect 300 million people to electricity in the region by 2030.
Led by the World Bank Group (WBG) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), Mission 300 is a unique initiative that brings together African governments, the private sector, and development partners to deliver affordable power, expand electricity access, boost utility efficiency, attract private investment and improve regional energy integration that drives economic transformation. To accelerate energy access through Mission 300, the WBG will connect 250 million people to electricity and the AfDB another 50 million by 2030.
Mission 300 is fueled by strong political will to transform Africa’s energy sector. Under the Dar es Salaam Energy Declaration, African governments have committed to important sector reforms that are being implemented through country-led Energy Compacts. To build on these reforms, the WBG is increasing its support for energy projects in Africa, leveraging $30 billion in IDA resources between now and 2030, while using innovative tools to mobilize private sector investments.
Partnerships play an essential role to ensuring Mission 300’s success. The WBG and the AfDB are working with partners like The Rockefeller Foundation, Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), and the World Bank's Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) trust fund, to mobilize resources and align efforts in support of powering Africa. Many development partners and development finance institutions (DFIs) are also supporting Mission 300 projects through co-financing and technical assistance.
To unlock private investment across Africa’s energy sector, the WBG is building upon its new guarantee platform to create innovative financing and de-risking facilities. For example, the WBG, the AfDB, and The Rockefeller Foundation launched Zafiri, a new investment company that will provide patient equity to private companies that advance distributed renewable energy solutions.
Together under Mission 300, this broad coalition of stakeholders is set to achieve a historic change in global energy access that will lift millions out of poverty and transform Africa.
Progress
In January 2025, the Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, marked a historic milestone on the journey to achieving universal access to energy in Africa. At the Summit, African government leaders endorsed the Dar es Salaam Energy Declaration, which affirms their joint commitment to advance critical reforms and actions across the energy sector to increase access to electricity and clean cooking, increase the share of renewable energy, and increase private capital mobilization. In response to governments’ commitment, Mission 300 partners pledged more than $50 billion in support of increasing energy access across Africa.
African governments have taken the lead, with support from the WBG, developing National Energy Compacts that identify critical reforms and quantify investment needs from both public and private sources. Twelve countries—Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zambia—have unveiled detailed compacts that set targets to scale up electricity access, increase the use of renewable energy, and attract additional private capital. The first round of National Energy Compacts have been adopted at the highest levels of government and preparations for the next cohort of compacts are now underway.
In parallel, the WBG is ramping up financing for energy projects, having connected more than 21 million across Africa (between July 1, 2023, and February 28, 2025), with projects under implementation to reach nearly 100 million and more in the pipeline.
Projects
The World Bank Group has a strong portfolio and pipeline of energy projects in Africa through which we are working with countries to connect 250 million people to electricity by 2030.
- In Eastern and Southern Africa, the Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Access Transformation (ASCENT) Program will provide energy access to 100 million Africans across 20 countries over the next five years, placing the region on the path to universal energy access. Under the ASCENT program, projects are helping countries achieve their national energy access goals through grid expansion and densification, strengthening utilities, regional power trade, and investments to scale up distributed renewable energy and clean cooking.
- Countries in Eastern and Southern Africa have already made significant strides to connect more people and communities to the grid, for example, the Ethiopia Electrification Program (ELEAP) has facilitated over 1.6 million on-grid connections, providing electricity to more than 8 million people and more than 19,000 public facilities such as schools, healthcare centers, and administrative government buildings. In addition, World Bank support for power transmission and distribution under the Regional Energy Transmission, Trade and Decarbonization Project is opening up power trade and creating an “electric highway” that connects countries from Ethiopia to South Africa to affordable and reliable energy. Recently approved financing for a connection between Zambia and Tanzania will open power trade between East and South regional power pools for the first time and enable north-south transcontinental power trade. A similar project between Malawi and Zambia is currently under preparation.
- In Western and Central Africa, Nigeria DARES supports the deployment of solar home systems and mini-grids that will benefit over 17.5 million Nigerians, or 20% of the country’s currently unserved population, while replacing over 250,000 polluting and expensive diesel generators. The new Regional Emergency Solar Power Intervention Project (RESPITE) covering Chad, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Togo, also focuses on increasing electricity access to millions of consumers by boosting grid-connected renewable energy capacity. In addition, efforts to expand grid interconnection and regional cooperation through programs in support of the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP) are making it possible to supply cheaper and more reliable electricity to 14 countries in the sub-region. A similar initiative is now gaining traction in the Central African Power Pool.
- Across the continent, the Distributed Access with Renewable Energy Scale Up (DARES) Platform leverages collaboration across the World Bank, IFC, MIGA and development partners to significantly accelerate decentralized renewable energy (DRE) access in Sub-Saharan Africa through private sector engagement. It also supports climate, food security, and human capital development goals.
- Electrifying Africa, a technical assistance facility funded by the World Bank Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), is helping countries develop reform roadmaps and provide just-in time technical assistance to prepare new projects and supports the development of least cost planning for electricity roll-out by leveraging state of the art geospatial mapping and demand modeling technologies.
Partners
To succeed, Mission 300 needs partners from diverse sectors—governments, philanthropies, the private sector, and multilaterals—to come together in ways that allow us to work quickly and differently than ever before.
This is why we have joined forces with the African Development Bank, and partners like Rockefeller Foundation, Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL), and the World Bank's Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) trust fund, to mobilize resources and align efforts in support of powering Africa.
Together, we can make a historic change in global energy access that will transform Africa.
