Seventeen African governments today endorsed detailed national action plans to accelerate electricity access under Mission 300, the continent-wide initiative that aims to connect 300 million people to electricity by 2030.
The commitments presented as national Energy Compacts at the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Forum mark a shift from targets and pledges to implementation-ready blueprints designed to attract financing, speed infrastructure rollout, and strengthen utility performance.
What was announced
The 17 countries that submitted or endorsed Energy Compacts are Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, São Tomé and Principe, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Each compact lays out country-specific reforms and projects across three core tracks: infrastructure, financing, and policy.
Since Mission 300’s launch earlier this year, organisers say roughly 30 million people have been connected and more than 100 million people are in the development pipeline signals that the initiative is moving from design into delivery.
Why it matters
Africa still carries the largest share of the global electricity access deficit: roughly 600 million people lack reliable electricity, a humanitarian and economic bottleneck that constrains education, health services, small business growth and industrialisation. Achieving the Mission 300 target would be a major step toward the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 on universal access to modern energy.
Mission 300 is intentionally partnership-driven. The World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB) are working with philanthropic and technical partners including the Rockefeller Foundation, the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) to align technical assistance, concessional finance, and private-sector mobilization.
Financing and the gap to close
Planners estimate that meeting large-scale electrification targets will require tens of billions per year in new investment.
Early support has come from multilateral and regional financiers: earlier in 2025, the Islamic Development Bank and the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank pledged multi-billion-dollar packages to back the broader electrification push, and MDBs including the World Bank and AfDB have signalled significant financing envelopes for Mission 300-aligned projects.
Still, analysts warn that public and private financiers must scale up to make national compacts bankable at speed.
How countries plan to deliver (regional highlights)
The national compacts are tailored to each country’s circumstances where grid extension is feasible, governments prioritise grid reinforcement and utility reforms; in rural and hard-to-reach areas, the emphasis is on mini-grids and off-grid solar solutions; coastal and resource-rich countries look to combine grid investments with industrial power offtake to unlock local manufacturing.
Practical examples emerging from the rollout:
- Kenya has long blended grid expansion with off-grid solar uptake and is positioning its compact to accelerate both approaches.
- Ghana and Sierra Leone plan to use off-grid and mini-grid models to reach dispersed rural communities.
- Mozambique and Namibia are focusing on grid capacity and regional interconnectivity to support larger industrial and export-oriented projects.
These approaches align with the Mission 300 design that balances grid and distributed solutions to hit the 300 million target.
Voices on the ground
“Electricity is the bedrock of jobs, opportunity, and economic growth,” World Bank Group President Ajay Banga said in the announcement, stressing that Mission 300 links targets to reforms that reduce costs, strengthen utilities and attract private investment.
Dr. Sidi Ould Tah, president of the African Development Bank Group, underlined how reliable, affordable power multiplies small business opportunities and industrialisation prospects.
Challenges ahead
Organisers and experts acknowledge several hurdles: the financing gap remains large, utilities in many countries need structural reforms to become creditworthy, regulatory frameworks for mini-grids and distributed solar require consolidation, and political stability and project pipeline bankability will be decisive for private capital flows.
Mission 300’s emphasis on national Energy Compacts is intended to address these weaknesses by making reforms explicit and measurable.
What comes next
The compacts include timetables for reforms and project rollouts; the World Bank and AfDB say they will monitor progress and coordinate co-financing and technical support.
The next year will be critical: translating compacts into signed project deals, utility performance improvements, and measurable connection numbers will determine whether Mission 300 achieves meaningful momentum toward the 2030 target.
Also read: Nigeria Mobilizes Investment Momentum with High-Level Mission 300 Energy Forum
FAQs
Q1: What is Mission 300?
A: Mission 300 is a multi-partner initiative led by the World Bank Group and African Development Bank that aims to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030 through national Energy Compacts, coordinated financing and technical support.
Q2: Which countries just committed?
A: Seventeen countries Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, São Tomé and Principe, Sierra Leone and Togo endorsed Energy Compacts at the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Forum.
Q3: How many people in Africa still lack electricity?
A: Roughly 600 million people in Africa lack reliable electricity access, according to recent IEA and UN analyses.
Q4: Where will the money come from?
A: Funding will be a mix of multilateral development bank financing, regional development banks, concessional grants, private capital and philanthropic support. Some MDBs and DFIs have already pledged multi-billion support packages, but significant additional private finance will be needed to fill the gap.
Q5: What are the biggest risks to Mission 300 succeeding?
A: The main risks are insufficient financing at scale, weak utility performance and governance in some markets, regulatory uncertainty for distributed solutions, and delays turning compacts into bankable projects that attract private investors. The compacts aim specifically to mitigate those risks through policy actions and transparency.
