$10 Million From Rockefeller Foundation to Back Africa’s 300 Million Electricity Access Goal
The Rockefeller Foundation has committed an additional $10 million to Mission 300, the joint World Bank Group and African Development Bank initiative aiming to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by the end of the decade.
The funding will be channelled through a collaboration with the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, with the goal of accelerating electrification across at least 15 African countries. The money will provide technical assistance to National Energy Compact Delivery and Monitoring Units — government bodies responsible for coordinating and tracking each country’s electrification targets. Work is already underway in Malawi and Liberia.
The Foundation also confirmed that earlier funding, deployed through its public charity RF Catalytic Capital, is already supporting coordination, monitoring, and implementation capacity in Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Senegal through the Mission 300 Accelerator.
The investment comes against a stark backdrop. More than 730 million people worldwide still lack access to basic electricity, with an estimated 600 million of them living in Africa. Research from the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative identifies lack of electricity access as the single strongest predictor of extreme poverty — with knock-on consequences for healthcare, education, agricultural productivity, and job creation.
“These new connections will reduce reliance on costly and dangerous alternatives, helping Africans build businesses and improve agricultural yields, while fueling job creation, education, healthcare, and hope,” said William Asiko, Senior Vice President and Head of Africa at The Rockefeller Foundation.
Launched as a joint initiative by the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank, Mission 300 uses a combination of grid extension and off-grid renewable energy solutions to reach rural and underserved communities. To date, the initiative has connected approximately 44 million people, a figure its backers say underscores both the progress made and the scale of what remains.
“Energy access is key to unlocking human potential and economic development,” said Andrew Herscowitz, CEO of RF Catalytic Capital’s Mission 300 Accelerator. “These additional investments will allow Mission 300 to go farther and do more so we can achieve our goal of connecting 300 million people to electricity by 2030.”
