Ken Okeke
African energy and finance Ministers hurried embraced an ambitious new partnership to transform the continent’s power sector at the Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam on January 27, while highlighting their countries’ distinct paths toward achieving universal access to electricity.
Mission 300 represents an unprecedented collaboration between the African Development Bank, the World Bank Group, the Rockefeller Foundation, Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), as well as other global partners including the African Union, the United Nations and regional development banks.
The initiative leverages new technology and innovative financing approaches to address Africa’s electricity access gap.
In a high-level panel discussion, Ministers representing Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Kenya and Côte d’Ivoire emphasized that while each nation faces unique challenges, success will require political leadership, policy reforms, and private sector participation.
Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire and Zambia were among twelve countries that will present their energy compacts during the two-day summit. The other nine are Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Tanzania and Senegal.
Under Mission 300, “every country will be able to carve its own unique path,” noted South Africa’s Minister of Electricity, Dr. Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. He outlined three key priorities for the electricity sector: affordability and accessibility, a just and affordable transition, and regional interconnectivity, noting that “essentially, we see ourselves as a connection of countries that are connected by these regional pools.”
“Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Energy, Mamadou Sangafowa-Coulibaly, highlighted his country’s role in regional power trade: “There are six countries with whom we exchange electricity and to which we export electricity.” Referencing the country’s gas and hydro power potential, he described plans to double the quantity of energy exports to the country’s neighbours by 2030. He however also emphasized payment challenges in cross-border electricity trade: ‘The electricity that we export, we are not always paid for it, which of course does create a huge challenge.’
Zambia’s Minister of Finance, Dr. Situmbeko Musokotwane, highlighted his country’s urgent need to expand power generation to support ambitious mining sector growth. “We are on a trajectory to triple copper production in the next ten years,” he said. “That requires electricity. We must minimize dependence on hydroelectric power and diversify our energy sources.” He emphasized that recent reforms have created attractive opportunities for private investors and invited them to “come to Zambia and invest in energy.”
Wale Edun, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, highlighted the country’s progress in attracting private investment: “Since the regulation of the sector, we’ve had 150 mini-grids set up and a million standalone solar connections in recent times.”
He emphasized the sector’s profit potential as key to attracting private investment: Drawing a parallel with the mobile telecommunications sector, he noted: “There was a time people would say that telephones are for the wealthy, the preserve of the rich. And now everybody has one.”
He stressed that a similar “revolution” needed to take place in Nigeria’s energy sector.
Kenya’s Minister of Energy and Petroleum Opiyo Wandayi stressed the importance of partnerships: “To achieve such an ambitious plan that is bound to benefit millions of people, it is not possible to do it alone. The principle of partnership is at the center of our strategy in terms of not only ensuring universal access to electricity but also in implementing our clean cooking strategy.”
Dr. Kevin Kariuki, African Development Bank Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth opened the panel discussion by setting out Mission 300’s ambitious scope: “We shall provide fast and energy-efficient solutions to 300 million people across Africa.
This effort is targeted at development. It is difficult, it is challenging, but cost-effective outcomes can play a crucial role.”
The summit will produce two key 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, serving as blueprints with country-specific targets and implementation timelines.
The Summit has brought together more than 1,000 participants, including several heads of state, development partners, and strong representation from the private sector.
President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina set the tone for the summit during the opening session: “This is not a talking summit. We can do megawatts of talk all we want, but it’s going to be the megawatts of power that we deliver that make this an action-driven summit. We need everybody – the heads of state, the private sector, the multilateral development banks, civil society – all of us working together. It’s not about us. It’s about those who are not here – the small business enterprises trying to simply have access to electricity to run our economies.”