From January 27th to 28th, 2025 Tanzania is hosting the first edition of the Mission 300 African Energy Summit, a collaboration between the African Development Bank, the World Bank and development partners to ensure that 300 million Africans have access to electricity by 2030. At present, 680 million Africans have no access to electricity, representing over 80% of the world’s unconnected population.
In Africa, 680 million people have no access to electricity. A collaboration between the African Development Bank, the World Bank and global development partners has set itself the target of reducing this number by 300 million by 2030. This means that in five years’ time, 300 million Africans will have access to electricity, if all goes according to plan.
“All I want to say is that if you want to deal with a big problem, it is not about the flag of the African Development Bank or that of the World Bank or of anybody else. It is not about what we planned but how we work together. So, this is all about joining hands, pulling resources and accountability. We can do megawatts talk all we want , it is going to be megawatts we deliver that actually matter.”
Akinwumi ADESINA, President of the African Development Bank Group – Nigeria
It is in this context that the first edition of the Mission 300 African Energy Summit is being held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Some twenty African heads of state are attending, along with over 1,300 participants, most of whom are from the private sector. Together, on January 27 and 28, 2025, they will chart Africa’s course towards universal access to energy.
“80% of the jobs in the world are created by small and medium enterprises and small shareholder farmers. Not from large companies. They need to be able to succeed and that requires the right regulatory environment but also the right access to capital. Those are the three verticals: the public, the knowledge and governance and then the private. Here is the issue: for them to work well, you need to have access to capital both priced but also concessional and there is not enough of that in government coffers; they have fiscal challenges and so on”
Ajay BANGA, President of the World Bank Group – India
The African Energy Summit is expected to produce two major outcomes: the Dar es Salaam Energy Declaration, which sets out the commitments and concrete actions of African governments to reform the energy sector. There will also be the first series of “National Energy Pacts”, which will serve as roadmaps with specific targets for each country and deadlines for the implementation of essential reforms.