African villages don’t get much more remote than in Madagascar and Mali. Isolated and off the grid, most settlements on Madagascar’s wild island and Mali’s dusty Saharan plains make do without electricity. nIn Madagascar, according to 2022 World Bank estimates, only 36% of the population has access to electricity; in Mali, that figure is officially 53%.

The reality on the ground is that national power grids simply don’t reach Africa’s out-of-the-way places. It costs too much to set up and maintain power lines into the hinterland, and there’s so little economic activity out there that the return on investment is simply too low.

At least, that’s what the narrative has been so far. Last year Welight announced that it was electrifying 186 small villages in Madagascar and Mali, connecting about 10 000 people a month to independent mini-grids.

Mini-grids, or micro-grids, are small-scale electricity systems that supply power to a community, operating independently nfrom the national grid. They’re typically nused in rural areas, where the national ngrid can’t reach.

This all feels a world away from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s sprawling, fast-growing megacity with its Chinese-funded bus rapid transit system and multiple megaprojects. But it was here, in Dar, that 30 African heads of state met in January for the Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit, where they committed to uniting governments, development banks, partners, philanthropies and the private sector to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030.

The Dar es Salaam Energy Declaration is ambitious: more than 600 million people in Africa live without electricity – and most of those are in the continent’s remotest parts.

The Mission 300 partners pledged more than US$50 billion to support this goal, nwhile 12 countries – Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, nthe DRC, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia and Tanzania – presented detailed national energy compacts that set country-specific targets to scale up electricity access, increase the use of renewable energy and attract additional private capital.

These were backed by a string of funding commitments from the likes of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group and the World Bank Group (US$48 billion), Opec Fund (US$1 billion), Agence Française de Développement (EUR1 billion), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (US$1 billion– US$1.5 billion) and Islamic Development nBank (US$2.65 billion).

‘Access to electricity is a fundamental human right. Without it, countries and people cannot thrive,’ Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank Group, said at the event. ‘Our mission to provide electricity to half of the 600 million people in Africa without access nis a critical first step. To succeed, we must embrace a simple truth: no one can do nit alone. Governments, businesses, philanthropies and development banks neach have a role – and only through collaboration can we achieve our goal.’

The good news is that many African countries are already on their way to ngreater electrification, with mini-grids powering the work. According to the nMini-Grids Partnership’s 2024 State of nthe Global Mini-Grids Market Report, the number of mini-grid installations around the world has grown six times since 2018, with much of that happening in sub-Saharan Africa.

According to IEA data, about 21 500 mini-grids supply electricity to about 48 million people around the world; and nearly half the top 20 countries with extensive access to mini-grid electricity are in sub-Saharan Africa.

What’s especially notable is the Mini-Grids Partnership’s finding that those new mini-grids are increasingly relying on clean energy. Between 2018 and 2024, the report found a significant decline (down from 42% to 29%) in the share of diesel capacity in mini-grids, accompanied by a sharp increase (14% to 59%) in the share of solar PV systems during the same period. The report attributes the growth to two key factors: increased funding from private investors, governments and development partners; and declining costs of mini-grid components. Maturing technology nis taking care of the second, while initiatives such as Mission 300 are taking care of the first.

Even before the Mission 300 launch, remote areas across Africa were plugging into mini-grid power. In Sierra Leone last year, the national government adopted a Results Based Financing (RBF) mechanism for solar mini-grids, particularly in rural areas, with EUR20 million financing from the European Union. Meanwhile, two 26.88 kWp combined capacity mini-grids were commissioned in northern Liberia’s rural Gbarpolu County, with funding coming in part from the Swedish government’s Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa initiative. Up to 8 000 Liberians are expected to benefit.

And so the list goes on. Ethiopia’s Ministry of Water and Energy recently announced that ‘preparations are in the final stages’ to provide solar-powered mini-grid electricity to at least 100 rural towns; while work has begun on 60 solar mini-grids in Zambia’s Eastern Province, under the country’s Access to Electricity and Renewable Energy Production programme.

Speaking at the Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam, Akinwumi Adesina, president of the AfDB Group, said: ‘Critical reforms will be needed to expand the share nof renewables, improve utility performance, ensure transparency in power purchase agreements and licensing, and establish predictable tariff regimes that reflect production costs. Our collective effort is to support you, heads of state and government, in developing and implementing clear, country-led national energy compacts to deliver on your visions for electricity in your respective countries.’

Private-sector players would have been nodding quietly in agreement. Writing for the Conversation in July 2024, Temilade Sesan of Nigeria’s University of Ibadan shares research findings into how mini-grids contribute to electricity access expansion in Nigeria.

‘We found that mini-grids do have a role nto play in increasing overall electricity supply, but regulation and financing need to pay greater attention to how that supply is distributed,’ she writes. ‘Our findings align with growing concerns that the opportunities presented by mini-grids come with challenges: balancing market efficiency with equity of access. These need attention nif mini-grids are going to provide more electricity to those without access now.’

The research also identified problems with the government’s approach. ‘The mini-grids that are in place don’t reach the people who most need access to electricity,’ says Sesan. ‘And although this market-driven approach has led to a 40% increase in mini-grid electricity supply since 2017, most can’t afford the tariffs. These are the people who ought to benefit the most from mini-grids. Market efficiency must be balanced with accessibility.’

Meanwhile, a New York Times report highlights how Husk Power Systems, the world’s biggest developer of solar mini-grids, had ‘closed up shop in Tanzania because the government insisted it sell its electricity at the same price as the heavily subsidised government-run electric utility’. The report notes that Husk, being unable to make money at that price, had ‘sold its assets, which it had spent millions of dollars on, at a steep loss’.

All this in a country where, just a decade ago, only one-third of the population was connected to the national grid… and the same country that hosted the Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit. Hence the emphasis non the need for public-private collaboration and helpful regulatory frameworks.

After all, initiatives are in place across nthe continent to connect communities nto mini-grid power. The trick is to ensure that’s happening in communities that need electricity access, and to ensure the power stays on.

By Mark van Dijk
Images: Gallo/Getty Images