The World Bank Group and African Development Bank Group are partnering on an ambitious effort to provide at least 300 million people in Africa with electricity access by 2030.
Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group, announced plans to ramp up electricity access for a quarter billion people in Sub-Saharan Africa, reaching nearly half the 600 million Africans currently without energy access by 2030.
He said: “Electricity access is the bedrock of all development. It is a critical ingredient for economic growth and essential for job creation at scale. Our aspiration will only be realized with partnership and ambition. We will need policy action from governments, financing from multilateral development banks, and private sector investment to see this through.”
Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), announced that AfDB will join this mission and help connect an additional 50 million people.
This partnership is a demonstration of the determination of the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank Group to be bolder, bigger, and better in tackling one of the most pressing challenges in Africa.
The initiative is the most recent manifestation of the World Bank Group’s commitment to become more impact-oriented and is the byproduct of a concerted work plan to build a better bank. It is aided by a constellation of regional energy programs that will now be aligned toward this common goal.
Abdessalam Ould Mohamed Saleh, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Mauritania said: “How are we going to transform agriculture sector if we don’t have electricity? […] In 2022, we adopted a long-term, formulated, and developed a long-term strategy to ensure access for Mauritanians to electricity by 2030 […] It sets an objective of 50% renewable by 2030 at the minimum because of the huge solar and wind energy sources that are available.”
Connecting 250 million people to electricity would open private sector investment opportunities in distributed renewable energy alone worth $9 billion, Providing opportunities for private investments in grid-connected renewable energy needed to power economies for growth.
