By Francis Kobena Tandoh
Over 50 million people in Africa have been connected to electricity since July 2023 under the Mission 300 initiative, the World Bank Group (WBG) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) said in a joint policy brief on Friday.
According to Franz Drees-Gross, WBG director of infrastructure for West Africa, and Wale Shonibare, AfDB Group director for energy financial solutions, policy, and regulations, the initiative has just reached a remarkable milestone.
The two banks explained that the success chalked matters because the initiative is one intended to accelerate, coordinate, and scale electricity access in Africa across both newly approved operations and existing portfolios of active investments, reforms, and partnerships, irrespective of when the underlying operations were approved.
“Over 50 million people have been connected to electricity since this initiative launched and began tracking results in July 2023. Behind that number are households with lights on after dark, health clinics able to extend their working day, and students able to study in the evening. This is what progress looks like, and it is just the beginning,” said the brief.
The policy brief, however, emphasized that electricity access for 300 million people by 2030 cannot be achieved only through projects approved after the Mission 300 launch date.
According to the banks, large energy infrastructure programs take years to begin delivering results, and hence, they urged the need to engage the full portfolio of available investments vis-à-vis mobilizing new financing, policy reforms, country compacts, and implementation support needed to move faster.
Mission 300 is an initiative led by the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank to connect 300 million people across Africa to electricity by 2030.
According to the banks, 36 Mission 300 countries have already adopted national energy compacts and are accelerating electricity access by addressing sectoral bottlenecks that have hampered faster delivery of existing projects and the development of new ones. Enditem
Source: Ghana Eye Report
