The Rockefeller Foundation and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet have surpassed the $100 million threshold in funding for Mission 300, the World Bank and African Development Bank’s flagship effort to power 300 million Africans by the end of the decade, more than a tenfold increase from the initial $10 million commitment made just 19 months ago.
The announcement, made at the Powering Africa Summit in Washington, underscores the growing philanthropic focus on electricity access as the most direct means of reducing poverty across sub-Saharan Africa, where 85 percent of the world’s estimated 730 million people live without electricity.
Rockefeller President Rajiv Shah said during a fireside chat with U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright that the combination itself suggests that energy access is bipartisan political currency in the development world.
Shah framed the effort in harsh terms. “The Rockefeller Foundation made the biggest bet in history on connecting people to electricity as the single best path out of mass poverty,” he said.
The $100 million will be split approximately 47 percent from Rockefeller and his public charity, RF Catalytic Capital, and 53 percent from the Global Energy Alliance.
The funding is now spread across 23 countries, including Nigeria, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Mozambique.
From pledge to pipeline
Mission 300, launched by the World Bank and African Development Bank in April 2024, signed national energy agreements with 30 countries to define investment objectives and policy reforms. Since its launch, approximately 44 million people have been connected to electricity across Africa, and tens of millions more are expected to be connected by the end of 2026.
Rockefeller and Allied capital is deployed across several workstreams. Much of it funds technical assistance to more than a dozen National Energy Compact Delivery Monitoring Units, the government agencies tasked with coordinating and tracking electrification progress, and to the 18 Mission 300 Fellowships embedded within those units.
The initiative also expanded the Productive Use Loan program, co-managed with CLASP, which provides subsidies for clean, energy-efficient appliances for small businesses and farmers, and invested in Zafiri, Mission 300’s permanent capital fund, which provides patient equity for decentralized renewable energy programs.
Clean cooking takes center stage
A notable addition to the agenda is clean cooking, an area that has historically struggled to attract capital despite its huge impact on public health. In sub-Saharan Africa, 70% of households rely on charcoal and wood for cooking, and these fuels are linked to respiratory illnesses and deforestation. The alliance has launched the Clean Cooking Accelerator Initiative and is piloting a dedicated clean cooking delivery unit in Kenya as a potential continental model.
For development finance veterans, $100 million is more important than a standalone number as a signal to commercial investors.
Kevin Kariuki, vice president of the African Development Bank, said the philanthropic capital was explicitly aimed at de-risking investments and “mobilizing greater public and private capital flows”.
The initiative is already channeling funding through the World Bank’s DARES program in West and Central Africa and the African Development Bank’s Africa Sustainable Energy Fund.
Woo-chung Um, CEO of the Global Energy Alliance, emphasized the focus on sustainable economic benefits. “New electricity connections lead to lasting economic opportunities for people and communities,” he said, pointing to productive use programs as a mechanism to turn infrastructure into income.
According to the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, access to electricity is the single strongest predictor of whether a household will escape extreme poverty, and is a data point that both the World Bank and its philanthropic partners have relied heavily on to build the political case for Mission 300’s ambitious 2030 goals.
