Seventeen African Countries Launch National Energy Compacts at UN General Assembly

Seventeen additional African countries launched their National Energy Compacts at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025, bringing the total number of African countries that have committed to the Mission 300 compact framework to twenty-nine. The compacts were announced alongside a series of energy access commitments from development finance institutions and bilateral donors supporting the Mission 300 initiative.

The seventeen newly-launched compacts follow the common five-priority structure established at the Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam in January 2025, where the first twelve compacts were unveiled. The priority areas are: expanding cost-efficient power generation and transmission at competitive cost, promoting regional integration, scaling last-mile access, enabling private sector participation, and improving utility financial viability.

Each compact outlines a country-specific roadmap to achieve energy access goals by 2030, including clean cooking and renewable energy generation components. The World Bank's Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), which has been supporting African governments on electrification strategies and least-cost planning, provided technical assistance in the preparation of the compacts.

As of September 30, 2025, World Bank Group-financed operations under the Mission 300 umbrella had connected approximately 32 million people to electricity across 84 projects in 39 countries. An additional 92 million people are projected to be reached through approved operations and a further 65 million through planned operations, bringing the total visible delivery pipeline to approximately 189 million connections against the 300 million target.

The September launch was welcomed as evidence that the Mission 300 framework is gaining traction beyond the initial group of countries that committed at the January 2025 summit. However, several industry observers have raised concerns that the pace of National Energy Compact implementation varies significantly across signatory countries, and that some compacts have not yet been translated into concrete regulatory reforms or financing commitments at the national level.

The World Bank Group has committed to connecting 250 million people to electricity by 2030 under Mission 300, with the African Development Bank responsible for the remaining 50 million. Mission 300 partners have collectively pledged over USD 50 billion in support of the initiative.