•Back W’Bank, AfDB’s plan to provide electricity access to 300m Africans
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) and The Rockefeller Foundation have introduced 23 new energy access projects in 11 African countries and across the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).
This was disclosed by the organisations during the Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit, taking place in Tanzania, which seeks to supply power to about 300 million Africans by 2030.
The beneficiary countries include: Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Tanzania and Cote d’Ivoire. Others are: Liberia, Mozambique, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and Malawi.
The projects are funded through an initial $10 million commitment by the two organisations to the Mission 300 Technical Assistance Facility, which was launched in September 2024 to provide more flexible, short- and medium-term technical assistance.
Besides, the collaboration is in support of the World Bank Group and African Development Bank (AfDB) initiative to provide improved electricity access to 300 million Africans by 2030.
“The Rockefeller Foundation created the Mission 300 Accelerator to demonstrate how philanthropy can break through bureaucratic obstacles to jumpstart World Bank and African Development Bank energy projects.
“In just a few short months, we have worked with the GEAPP, Sustainable Energy for All and the banks to advance two dozen projects, putting us on track to bring reliable electricity to 300 million people across Africa at unprecedented speed,” said Andrew Herscowitz, Chief Executive of the Mission 300 Accelerator.
“We are delighted to have made significant strides on a series of impactful projects that GEAPP and The Rockefeller Foundation are developing with strategic partners across Africa. The design and preparation of these initiatives is advancing an Africa-led mission that unlocks power where it is needed most,” he added.
Chief Executive, GEAPP, Woochong Um, stated that by improving local skills, capacity, and implementation efforts, the organisation supports African governments, institutional partners, and businesses with new financial tools.
In addition he stated that they are bankable projects that boost cooperation and innovation and fuel sustainable growth for communities across the continent, with more than 50 per cent of its current portfolio by value invested in Africa.
In addition to GEAPP’s support for the Accelerator’s new investments, the Alliance, which has 63 projects in more than 20 African countries, the group said, is already working intensively with the AfDB and World Bank to design and accelerate electrification efforts in several African markets.
Currently, Africa has an average electrification rate of 50 per cent and is home to approximately 600 million without access to reliable electricity. Co-housed within GEAPP and RF Catalytic Capital (RFCC), The Rockefeller Foundation’s public charity launched in 2020 to pool and align resources.
The Accelerator is designed to swiftly deploy philanthropic capital for TA across sub-Saharan Africa. In support of African governments’ and the two multilateral development banks’ efforts to accelerate the pace and efficiency of electricity access projects across the continent, the Facility’s first projects are expected to include the listed countries.
In Nigeria, it will be supporting the Distributed Renewable Energy Enhancement Facility (DREEF), which seeks to provide project preparation and sponsor support to pathfinder DRE developers including interconnected mini-grid projects, mini-grid projects, and standalone solar system as a service business model.
It will also support project preparation for transmission and projects under the AfDB’s Desert to Power programme in the country, where the rate of population growth has outpaced the increase in electrification (World Bank).
The support will also provide technical and quality review of projects under the Desert to Power programme and provide a project coordination office for all electrification projects.
The GEAPP is an alliance of philanthropy, governments, technology, policy, and financing partners, while The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on collaborative partnerships at the frontiers of science, technology, and innovation.