Feature By: Stanley Bonney, an environmental Campaigner
Background
“Let there be light and there was light’ was the first statement made by the Ultimate Reality per the Holy Scriptures of Christians. Initially, the earth was without form and everything was in darkness. According to the Christian story of creation, man was created when everything was in motion.
Light kindled the universe. It is thus imperative that humans desire the collection of rays to work in life. The steady continuation of civilization depends on light energy to boost industries and factories necessary for the ultimate growth of civilization.
Contextually, Africa is home to about 1.5 billion people (as of 2025). The continent is making steady progress towards a trajectory of robust industrialization and speedy advancement in technology. The 2063 Agenda by the African Union is a key testament to the welcoming growth. It highlights the need to make the African continent a place of prosperity and sustainability.
With all these said, about 600 million Africans do not have access to electricity in any form. This translates to mean that 40% of Africans are not using any form of electricity in their daily lives. This also means they use other alternatives which pollutes their domestic settlements.
Consequently, it leaves the affected people in poor health as the smoke used affects their health conversely. As of 2025, Africa still houses large components of critical minerals such as Cobalt, Nickel, and Lithium. Unfortunately, the continent has not optimized fully the critical minerals which could have been used to electrify homes, offices, industries and factories. Why do we have all these resources and still fail to provide electricity for our people? Speaking of electrification, Africa is home to nearly 83% of the world’s unelectrified population.
A Sparkled Momentum
In April 2024, the World Bank Group and African Development Bank Group committed to a joint decision to provide access to electricity to 300 million Africans which halves the number of unelectrified Africans. It is determinably possible as stated by the two financial institutions that by 2030, 300 million Africans within Sub Saharan region will have access to electricity, hence the name MISSION 300.
In this regard, while the World Bank Group has committed to connect 250 million Africans to electricity, the African Development Bank Group has committed to make electricity accessible to 50 million Africans. Most countries in Sub Saharan Africa have commenced numerous projects and initiatives to make the ultimate goal a reality for their citizenry.
Specifically, in Eastern and Southern Africa, the speed at which the electrification process is moving is highly commendable. The Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Access Transformation Program (ASCENT) is aiming to connect 100 million people in 20 countries in both East and South Africa.
Some of these countries include Rwanda, Tanzania, Somalia, Burundi and Sao Tome et Principe. Likewise, in some parts of Western and Central Africa, it is quite obvious that electrification is massively and rapidly moving. The Regional Emergency Solar Power Intervention Project (RESPITE) is a project that seeks to intensify regional power supply and connect homes and farms to solar mini grid.
Also, the Nigerian Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale – Up aims to connect about 17.5 million Nigerians to electricity. Ultimately, these projects do provide a clue to the mere fact that measures are being put in place by the key and supporting partners to achieve the purpose of the Mission. The West African Power Pool (WAPP) is an initiative specialized under the Economic Community of West African States that aims to accelerate the access to electricity om order to power industries, offices and homes.
Financial Commitments and Private Sector Mobilization
Understandably, Mission 300 is relatively an ambitious project that demands huge funds and material resources to realize its main objective. Governments of beneficiary countries have made their various pledges to expedite the rate of access to electricity in their respective countries. Ghana has committed an amount of $4.4 billion to boost the universal electrification process by 2035.
Out of the $4.4 billion committed by Ghana, $1.8 billion would emerge from the coffers of the state while the remaining $2.6 billion would be sponsored by the private sector. In the same vein, private partners and philanthropic organizations have pledged their financial commitments to make the objective of providing access to electricity to 300 million people in Africa. Together with Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet and Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL), the Rockefeller Foundation has committed over $60 million to massively support the project.
Some international financial institutions have also come on board to add their wings to the flight. In their bid, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has sponsored the project with $2.65 billion. OPEC Fund for Development has also supported the project with an initial amount of $1 billion with a supporting amount of $1 billion in anticipation of project development and demand.
Overall, over $50 billion has been consolidated by the project with which $48 billion came from the World Bank Group and African Development Bank Group. The private sector involvement is a testament to the massive contribution the sector is providing to reach a climate resilient continent.
The investment in clean cooking has the highest propensity to make enough marginal returns. As promising as it may sound, the Mission 300 is open to more investors and philanthropic organizations.
Ghana In Context
As of 2025, Ghana has achieved 89% in electricity supply to its citizenry with the aim to achieve 99.9% access by 2035 by putting in place realistic and pragmatic measures. Comparatively, Ghana has performed better with electricity access being at the rate of 89%. As part of Mission 300, countries involved are tasked to prepare and present their national documents which highlights their commitment to Mission 300.
The document to be presented is called Energy Compact and it postulates the countries’ various pillars under which the targets would operate. The Energy Compact of Ghana was updated and presented in September 2025. The update was necessitated by the growing increase in broader stakeholder consultation. The Energy Compact of Ghana was presented by President John Dramani Mahama on September 28, 2025 at the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Forum in New York.
The updated Energy Compact prioritizes increase in renewable energy share from 4% to 30% by 2030, mobilize investment and promote clean cooking. The Energy Compact seeks to address the challenge of inefficiencies concerning the supply of electricity while maximizing returns. With the world moving rapidly towards gender diversification in all sectors, the compact accelerates the participation of women and men equally shared proportions even though priority has been given to women. I find this commendable owing to the fervent commitment by government to uphold its promise to hold the main theme in the Affirmative Action Act.
Aside the Energy Compact, Ghana seeks to thrive in the energy sector by transitioning to Clean Energy by the year 2070 by implementing its Energy Transition Plan and the Renewable Energy Master Plan. It is applaudable that the country seeks to intensify its energy supply to houses, offices and businesses by progressing steadily in its National Electrification Scheme. By adopting fully Liquified Petroleum Gas, the country is facilitating increase in access to clean from 36.9% to 50% by 2030.
A Concern to Be Addressed
As noted earlier, the population of Africa stands currently at 1.5 billion. Out of 1.5 billion people, about four hundred (400) million of the population make up the youth population (15-35 years). It is projected that the African youth population, will make 46% of the world youth population by 2030. Obviously, in the very near future, young people will ultimately benefit positively or negatively from decisions, policies and laws made currently.
Imagine you live in a world where every other continent gives their young people for a to take their own decisions which would be adopted in their national policies and legislative acts while your continent does not give you that opportunity? It is sad and unfortunate that the African continent does not give its youth the opportunity to decide their future. The platforms, for a and boardrooms are made up of people who have lived their lives and they are rather making decisions for the young ones.
Let us get back. In the Energy Compact of Ghana, the participation of young ones in the implementation of the brilliant initiatives is clearly not defined. The Energy Compact should serve the interest of young people in Ghana. Young people in Ghana can get numerous employment opportunities especially in the quest to move to a fossil fuel free economy by 2070 as stated in the Ghana Energy Transition Plan. The young people in Ghana are hardworking, smart and ready to work in order to earn income legitimately. In the country’s bid to address the prevalent issue of unemployment, we can take a critical look at the immense opportunities vis a vis the Energy Compact.
Recently, at the Press Conference that took place in Accra, the Strategic Youth Network for Development, (SYND Ghana) through their youth platform, Youth in Natural Resources and Environmental Governance, made a clarion and bold call on government to go back to the room and define clearly the roles of youth in the implementation of the Compact. In the Press Conference, the platform made mention how they have engaged in green entrepreneurship for the past few years. This depicts crystally clear how ready young people in Ghana are to carry the Energy Compact at their back. Give them the opportunity. Call them to the decision-making table. They are ready.
A Fair Conclusion
In January 2025, twelve (12) countries presented the completed version of their Energy Compacts to the World Bank Group and African Development Bank Group and other supporting partners in order to realize the synchronization with the main objectives of the Mission 300. Fast forward in September 2025, seventeen (17) additional countries activated their stance when they presented their compacts to the World Bank Group and African Development Bank Group. In their presentation, the Heads of Governments did not hesitate to vocalize their involvement ad stance in the Mission. President John Dramani Mahama established the firm stance on Ghana’s commitment to boost private sector participation in the implementation of Ghana’s Energy Compact by saying,” Ghana believes universal access to energy is key to empowering businesses, reducing power system inefficiencies and creating equal opportunities. This can only be achieved through partnerships supported by an enabling environment for sustainable development.” This is an opportunity for the private sector to maximize their returns in the market. Clean Energy is absolutely the future and all indicators show how reliable it would be. For the last five years, China and the United States of America have recorded a massive surge in the supply of solar energy. Undoubtedly, solar energy has increased the rate of productivity in these countries. President William Ruto of Kenya emphasized that, “Energy is a key enabler under the infrastructure component of Kenya’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.” He stated with much commitment universal access to energy for the Kenyan people by vocalizing explicitly that, “The Energy Compact anchors our commitment to achieve universal access to electricity and clean cooking and transition over grid to full reliance on clean energy by 2030.” For me, it is my greatest hope that this ambitious target be reached. This project should provide massive opportunities for young people in related areas. Civil Society Organizations should continue being a formidable partner to the project.
All renewable energy and climate activists should rally behind the project to make it successful by reviewing the accountability mechanisms periodically attached to its implementing strategies. It is a clarion call on the World Bank Group and African Development Bank Group to engage relevant stakeholders in the continual success of the Mission. As Africans, we have few more years to meet the target of the Mission, but are we going to be good missionaries?
The writer Stanley Bonney is an Environmental Campaigner
Accra, Ghana.
Email: bonneystanley9@gmail.com
Contact: 0559536203
Source: www.climatewatchonline.com
