The World Bank has urged private sector investors to play a pivotal role in achieving its ambitious “Mission 300” initiative, which aims to connect 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria to electricity by 2030.
The initiative is a collaborative effort with the African Development Bank to address the region’s significant energy access gap, where nearly 600 million people — 83 per cent of the global unelectrified population — lack electricity.
The Bank said in its report tagged “Mission 300 is Powering Africa” that it was committed to connecting 250 million people, while the AfDB will provide electricity access to an additional 50 million.
To build momentum towards the target, the World Bank is implementing large-scale projects such as the Nigeria Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up.
In 2023, the World Bank approved $750m for the DARES project. Focused on Western and Central Africa, the initiative is set to benefit over 17.5 million Nigerians, replacing more than 250,000 diesel generators with cleaner energy solutions.
In Eastern and Southern Africa, the Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Access Transformation programme aims to connect 100 million people in 20 countries and has already launched in Burundi, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe.
The World Bank emphasised that bridging Africa’s energy divide requires the private sector funding to complement public and multilateral financing.
“The private sector is central to filling funding gaps. Estimates vary, but electrifying Africa will require a lot more financing than what development banks alone can supply, making massive private investment crucial to meet Mission 300 objectives. Businesses must step in and scale up investments in transmission, distribution, and cross-border energy trade.”
The report by Punch newspaper quoted the World Bank as saying that institutions such as the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency are working to create incentives and guarantees that encourage private sector participation in energy projects.
GIK/APA