Dar es Salaam: President Bola Tinubu has concluded his visit to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where he joined other African leaders to participate in the Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit. The President, who arrived with his team on Sunday, is now on his way back to Abuja.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the two-day summit, hosted by the government of Tanzania in collaboration with the African Union, the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the World Bank Group, adopted the Dar es Salaam Declaration. The Declaration focused on providing access to electricity for 300 million people in Africa by 2030. The high point of the event was the presidential endorsement of the Dar es Salaam Declaration by African leaders at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre. Following the reading of the Declaration, leaders from Nigeria, Chad, C´te d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zambia signed the document.
Through the Declaration, the leaders from the 12 countries expressed their commitment to ensuring electricity access for their citizens in the next five years. The 12 nations plan to achieve the goal through National Energy Compacts, which identify specific policy measures to address constraints across their energy sector and set targets based on their unique context.
In the speech read by Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, the Minister of Power, the Nigerian leader lauded the AfDB, the World Bank Group, and development partners for their collective pledge to bring electricity access to 300 million people in Africa by 2030. President Tinubu called on African leaders to prioritize energy access, emphasizing collective action. He reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to providing reliable, affordable, and sustainable electricity to its unelectrified population by 2030, acknowledging AfDB’s $1.1 billion expected to provide electricity for five million people by the end of 2026.
President Tinubu highlighted ongoing investments in renewable energy, particularly solar power in Nigeria, and detailed the substantial progress Nigeria has achieved with international development support. He announced plans for the World Bank’s $750 million support for expanding Nigeria’s distributed energy access via mini-grids and standalone solar systems, providing power to 16.2 million people. The President thanked Mr. Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group, and Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina of AfDB for their transformative vision, which he said “will light up and power Africa.”
At the summit, the International Finance Corporation announced a commitment of $70 million in private sector funding to five Nigerian Renewable Electricity Service Companies. Nigeria’s National Energy Compact, presented at the summit, sets targets with implementation timelines and outlines for planned reforms, including expanding power generation and investing in transmission and distribution infrastructure. The document states that Nigeria will require an investment of $23.2 billion for last-mile electrification, including public and private sector contributions.