Mission 300 will be a game changer for Kenya and Africa

The World Bank in conjunction with African Development Bank are jointly involved in a monumental energy project dubbed Mission 300, an initiative whose principal purpose is to facilitate access to electricity to over 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.

The two multilateral institutions are seeking to leverage their lending abilities in promoting power projects jointly and supporting ongoing investments in the energy sector across the targeted countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to International Energy Agency Report for the year ended 2022, more than 600 million people in Africa lacked universal access to electricity, with 98 per cent of them domiciled in sub-Saharan Africa.

At the end of 2024 by Afrobarometer indicated that in Kenya, four out of 10 people or close to 40 per cent are not connected to the electricity grid, and among those who are connected, only 74 per cent indicated that their supply was stable most of the time. It infers that about 26 per cent of the connected population have erratic electricity supply to their households, with frequent outages that take long to be worked upon.

Statistics from the Ministry of Energy show that Kenya has over the past three years increased power connection to 9,693,954 homes in 2024 from 8,919,584 homes in 2022, and further indicates that electricity access has significantly improved with approximately 75 per cent of the population being connected to the electricity grid, mostly driven by the last mile connectivity initiative.

The aforementioned statistics point to a sector which requires a shot in the arm to ensure that more people are connected to enjoy the benefits that accrue from reliable power supply, including safety, use in healthcare, in educational institutions and for agriculture.

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The partnership between World Bank and African Development Bank in Mission 300 project is to continuously advocate for clean energy projects across the continent, and Kenya is not an exception, with the country’s generation sources being hydro, wind, geothermal and solar.

The project could not have come at a better time as it seeks to address the salient access gaps in the energy sector by targeting areas which have limited electricity access especially the rural and remote areas and other areas that are under-served.

The project has a keen focus on integrating renewable energy sources into power projects to enhance the former’s sustainability. Kenya must leverage more from this focus area as the country currently has a fair distribution mix of energy sources, and as of December 2024, geothermal energy led the mix, with a commanding contribution of approximately 45 per cent, with 19 per cent coming from hydro-power, the two sources forming the mainstay of power generation, which buttresses the country’s long held commitment of promoting use of clean energy.

With a considerable population still having no access to electricity, the government must take advantage of Mission 300 project and leverage the initiative’s innovative financing model which will considerably lower the cost of connecting power to households.

However, for Kenya to realise the vision of the project, relevant players in Kenya’s energy sector must proactively seek high level liaison and collaboration with the multilateral lenders and align the country’s energy policy  the obtaining dynamics to ensure that the country benefits fully.

Dr Mukhongo is a project management consultant