50 million Africans got electricity for the first time

Fifty million Africans across 40 countries now have electricity for the first time, the result of a $15 billion push by the World Bank and the African Development Bank Group. The initiative, called Mission 300, aims to halve the number of people living without reliable power by 2030, and it works through National Energy Compacts that get ministries and investors lined up behind a single plan. More than 30 countries have signed on. In Tanzania, 7.5 million people gained access, a five-fold jump over the pace before the program started in 2024. Ethiopia connected 4.6 million, helped by reforms that made hookups cheaper. Households are now getting stable power twice as often as they were in 2024. "Electricity is not just about power," said Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank Group. "It is about what it enables: jobs, business, health care, education, and opportunity." Roughly 600 million people on the continent are still waiting.