The African Development Bank (AfDB) launched its flagship Electricity Regulatory Index (ERI) 2024 at the Africa Energy Forum in Cape Town, this week, ending the 20th June 2025.
The Bank has committed to delivering 50 million of Mission 300’s ambitious target of 300 million new connections, working closely with countries and partners to align investment and policy reforms.
The initiative gained traction in January 2025 at the Africa Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam, when twelve countries—as a first batch—unveiled their National Energy Compacts, outlining concrete policy actions and investment plans to fast-track electrification. This was backed by the Dar es Salaam Declaration on Energy, which calls for coordinated action on financing, reforms, and implementation.
The Bank’s participation at AEF 2025 comes as it deepens its investment in power generation, transmission and off-grid solutions across Africa.
Between 2016 and 2025, it invested $12.74 billion to connect over 28 million people to electricity and financed nearly 40,000 km of distribution lines. In 2024 alone, it enabled the generation of 1,019 MW of electricity, construction of 2,326 km of transmission infrastructure, and provided electricity access to 448,000 people.
These efforts align with the Bank’s “Light Up and Power Africa” priority and the New Deal for Energy in Africa, which together aim to achieve universal electricity access on the continent by 2030, addressing the urgent needs of the 600 million Africans still living without power. The Bank leads major regional initiatives such as Desert to Power, which spans 11 Sahelian countries and aims to generate 10 GW of solar energy to benefit up to 250 million people. It also supports the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) and the Facility for Energy Inclusion (FEI), both focused on mobilizing capital for early-stage clean energy projects and smaller-scale private sector developers.