CURRENT AFFAIRS AFRICA
OPEC Fund joins Mission 300 with a financing pledge of up to US$2 billion By Axel Reiserer, OPEC Fund “CONNECTING PEOPLE TO ELECTRICITY” POWERING UP AFRICA
F rom the time we wake up in the morning until we hit the pillow at night, our daily life is dependent on electricity. Electricity means we can switch on the light in the morning, take a warm shower and find food in the fridge. Electricity allows us to connect to the internet. Neither businesses nor schools nor hospitals can function without electricity. When her village Matipwili lost electricity access, her daughter’s performance at school immediately suffered, Mashavu Ali, 45, a mother of eight from Tanzania, told the New York Times . She also had to shelve her own plans to open an ice cream business: “What to say, eh? It remains an idea,” she sighs.
While more than 90 percent of people across the world have access to electricity, the picture is entirely different in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to the World Bank, roughly 600 million people in the region lack access to electricity. The Ghanaian poet Nora Anyidoho writes: I speak for the sons and the daughters studying by candlelight, I speak for the mothers, the fathers, the entrepreneurs whose dreams flicker in dreariness. I speak for the nations, seemingly draped in half-darkness. I speak to flip the switch.
Flipping the switch is precisely what the Mission 300 initiative is planning to deliver across Sub-Saharan Africa. The OPEC Fund joined the initiative with a pledge of up to US$2 billion at a summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in January 2025. The event was attended by, among others, World Bank President Ajay Banga, African Development Bank (AfDB) President Akinwumi Adesina, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) President Jin Liqun, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and several heads of state from across Africa. Mahmoud Khene, Director, West and Central Africa, attended on behalf of OPEC Fund President Abdulhamid Alkhalifa and said: “We strongly support
14
Powered by FlippingBook