Rockefeller Foundation Commits $10 Million to Advance Mission 300 Electrification Initiative in Africa

The Rockefeller Foundation has announced an additional $10 million in funding to support the Mission 300 electrification initiative, a joint effort by the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank aimed at connecting 300 million people in Africa to electricity by 2030.

The announcement was made during Mission 300 Day at the Africa Energy Indaba 2026 held in Cape Town, South Africa.

With the new funding, the Rockefeller Foundation will collaborate with the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet to accelerate electrification projects across at least 15 African countries. The initiative will provide technical support to Compact Delivery and Monitoring Units (CDMUs) responsible for implementing National Energy Compacts.

Support activities have already begun in Malawi and Liberia. In addition, assistance is being extended to CDMUs in Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Senegal through funding previously announced with the Rockefeller Foundation’s public charity, RF Catalytic Capital.

According to William Asiko, Senior Vice President and Head of Africa at the Rockefeller Foundation, African governments are increasingly committing to transformative energy sector reforms through National Energy Compacts. These efforts aim to expand electricity access, stimulate economic growth, and support essential services such as healthcare, education, and agriculture.

Currently, more than 730 million people worldwide lack access to electricity, including approximately 600 million in Africa, making energy poverty one of the continent’s major development challenges. Research by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative identifies lack of electricity access as one of the strongest predictors of extreme poverty.

Mission 300 was launched by the World Bank and African Development Bank to address this challenge by expanding electricity access across sub-Saharan Africa through a combination of grid expansion and decentralized renewable energy solutions. The initiative has already connected around 44 million people to electricity.

Since the first National Energy Compacts were introduced during the Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit 2025 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, several African countries have adopted these frameworks. The compacts focus on policy reforms and investments designed to enable large-scale electrification while fostering long-term economic transformation.

In addition, the Rockefeller Foundation confirmed that the Mission 300 Accelerator is supporting CDMUs in Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal through technical assistance funding.

Andrew Herscowitz, CEO of RF Catalytic Capital’s Mission 300 Accelerator, stated that expanding electricity access remains essential for unlocking economic development and improving livelihoods across sub-Saharan Africa.

Meanwhile, Carol Koech, Vice President for Africa at the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, emphasized that achieving the Mission 300 goal will require strong institutional coordination and effective implementation frameworks.

During Mission 300 Day at the Africa Energy Indaba, the Rockefeller Foundation also announced the expansion of technical assistance fellowships for CDMUs in partnership with the nonprofit impact accelerator CoAction Global. These fellowships will support electrification initiatives across at least 18 African countries.

The first group of Mission 300 Fellows is already providing technical assistance in countries including Burundi, Chad, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Republic of Congo, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, among others.

The initiative is expected to play a significant role in accelerating electrification efforts and expanding access to reliable power across the African continent.