Connecting 300 million Africans to electricity within the next five years is within reach through collaborative effort and commitment to implementation, participants at the Africa Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, heard on Monday.
The summit is organized by the Government of Tanzania and Mission 300, an unprecedented collaboration between the African Development Bank Group, the World Bank Group and global partners to address Africa’s electricity access gap using new technology and innovative financing.
Nearly 600 million Africans lack electricity, a critical resource for economic development and job creation.
Speaking during the first panel discussion of the opening day of the two-day Summit, African Development Bank President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina set the summit’s tone of action and implementation, emphasizing practical solutions to achieve the ambitious goal, from regulatory reforms to private sector engagement. He called for active involvement from a wide range of stakeholders, including bilateral and multilateral institutions, private sector entities, civil society organizations, and foundations.
“This is mission critical… Our mission here is to say we need everybody… It’s not about us, it’s about those who are not here, and we must listen and hear and make sure this is an action-driven summit… We can’t do Mickey Mouse business… We can’t have a situation where Africa does not have enough electricity,” Adesina told the audience, which included several African energy ministers, international development partners and private sector titans, civil society organizations, and foundations, attending the first day of the summit.
The second day of the summit will see the participation of several heads of state from across Africa, who will join more than 1,500 other participants. Together they will chart Africa’s course toward universal access to energy.
“We have a clear path to reaching these 300 million people,” Dr. Adesina stressed, distinguishing the initiative from previous efforts. He emphasized that the program seeks to transform Africa’s vast potential into reality through comprehensive electrification.
“With power, Africa will not just meet expectations but exceed them, becoming a competitive and prosperous continent,” he added.
Mission 300 will incorporate robust accountability measures, including country-specific monitoring and evaluation systems and the Africa Energy Regulatory Index to track progress. “This is all about accountability, transparency, and delivery while letting Africa develop with pride,” Adesina stated.
Adesina highlighted the devastating toll of traditional cooking methods based on firewood and charcoal, resulting in the death of 600,000 women and children annually due to smoke exposure.
The crisis extends beyond energy access, affecting environmental sustainability through deforestation and biodiversity loss. “It’s not just about energy transition,” Adesina said. “This is about dignity. Africa must develop with dignity and pride, and access to clean cooking solutions is fundamental to achieving this goal.” He praised Tanzania for developing a comprehensive national strategy to address this issue.
World Bank Group President Ajay Banga expressed optimism about the initiative, saying its ambitious objectives are achievable through hard work, particularly in ensuring a conducive environment for the private sector to participate. He emphasized the need for predictability of currencies, regulatory frameworks and land acquisition to incentivize investments supporting Mission 300.
In his remarks, Rajiv Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation, called global philanthropists to support the initiative.
“Please join us in getting behind the ideas of this initiative and the country compacts that the leaders will be signing. What is at stake is the future of African economies, the future of African young people, and the future of our world,” he said, adding that his foundation was committing $65 million to the program.
Speaking after the fireside chat, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed emphasized that energy access is not merely about power delivery, but about what that power will connect and enable. “It is important that we see food systems at the helm of all of this, and that they are powered by the energy that you will connect,” she stated. Mohammed explained how energy connectivity would catalyze transformative change in rural communities, particularly for women and youth, through access to digital financial services, online education, and e-commerce opportunities.
However, she stressed that realizing these ambitions would require significant financial engineering and private sector engagement. “The private sector’s got to lean in and it won’t lean in if the message is that your finance environment is not conducive to us,” she noted, calling for reforms in credit rating systems and financial architecture. “When you want to put together the financing for energy it is not easy and it requires many people at the table in parallel with what we are doing, the policy and the regulation, designing these pipelines and getting the money ready.”
The summit is expected to yield two significant outcomes: the Dar es Salaam Energy Declaration, outlining commitments and practical actions from African governments to reform the energy sector, and the first set of National Energy Compacts, which will serve as blueprints with country-specific targets and timelines for implementation of critical reforms.
