The Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community, His Excellency Mr. Elias M. Magosi, from 27 to 28 January 2025, participated at the Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit (M300 AES), in Dar Es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania. The event was jointly organised by the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) and the World Bank Group (WBG), the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, and the Africa Union at the Julius Nyerere International Conference Centre.
The Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit was convened to facilitate discussions on enhancing commitment by the Heads of State and Government to increase access to electricity in Africa by at least 300 million by the year 2030 in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 on sustainable energy access. In addition, out 54 African Union Member States, 12 including five (5) SADC Member States namely, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Madagascar, Malawi, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia were categorically selected to unveil National Energy Compacts, outlining ambitious targets and key reforms of their national energy supply industry tailored to their unique contexts as enablers to attracting investment in increasing access to electricity and clean cooking systems.
The M300 AES Summit brought together 24 Heads of State and Government, Vice Presidents, Prime Ministers as well as Ministers responsible for Energy, Finance, Foreign Affairs from almost all African Countries. As part of the key organisers, the President of the World Bank Group Mr Ajay Banga and Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of African Development Bank Group were in attendance. The Cooperating Partners including the Multilateral Development Banks, Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), Development Funding institutions such as the Rockefeller Foundation and Commercial Banks as well as global, continental, and regional energy organisations such as the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and the Southern African Power Pool participated at the event.
While delivering opening remarks and welcoming delegates to the Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit, Her Excellency President Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan of the United Republic of Tanzania expressed commitment by the United Republic of Tanzania towards ensuring access to electricity from current levels to more than 70% and ultimately reach universal access by 2035. In her capacity as the Champion for clean energy cooking systems in Africa, H.E. Dr. Suluhu Hassan emphasised the important role that access to electricity and clean cooking systems plays in uplifting the livelihoods of women and girls while ensuring that no one is left behind. President Dr. Suluhu Hassan informed the M300 AES Summit that the current generation capacity in the United Republic of Tanzania can meet the demand through an almost evenly diversified generation mix comprising hydropower, natural gas and geothermal.
In terms of regional integration, the United Republic of Tanzania is interconnected to four (4) out of eight (8) neighbouring countries. To enhance regional integration, the Tanzania-Zambia interconnector (part of Zambia-Tanzania-Kenya (ZTK)) is at development stage. Once commissioned the ZTK interconnector will enable power trading from the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) and the East African Power Pool (EAPP) that will allow flow of electrons along the longest continental corridor from Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt and vice versa. The SADC Secretariat in collaboration with SAPP is coordinating development of Mozambique-Tanzania Interconnector project, Malawi-Tanzania Interconnector as well as the multi-sectoral Songwe River Basin Development Programme (SRBDP). The SEBDP aims to implement Water-Energy-Food Security- Ecosystems (WEFE) concept through five (5) projects namely the Lower Songwe and Hydropower Plant, Irrigation Schemes for food security, Water Supply Projects for sustainable clean drinking water, Institutionalisation of Environmental Measures as well as building of Priority Social Infrastructure and service for including roads, schools and health centres.
As part of this initiative of increasing access to electricity and cleaning cooking systems, the World Bank Group committed US$ 30 - 40 billion, African Development Bank Group committed US$10 -15 billion and the Rockefeller Foundation US$ 20 billion towards the initiative of connecting 300 million to electricity in Africa. Other Multilateral Banks and Financial Institutions such as the Islamic Development Bank pledged USD 2.65 billion, Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank pledged USD 1.5 billion, the OPEC Fund pledged USD 1 billion with additional financing to follow, and Agence Française de Développement (AFD) pledged USD 1 billion.
The SADC Executive Secretary, H.E. Mr. Elias M. Magosi participated in the M300 AES Summit and side events to discuss how the regional and continental priority energy projects clustered in the strategic plans such as the Continental Power Systems Master Plan (CMP) and the Southern African Power Generation and Transmission Master Plan (SAPP Pool Plan) as well as those compiled in the second Short-Term Action Plan of the Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan (RIDMP- STAP II) can contribute towards increasing access to electricity from current level of 55% to 85% by 2030 in line with the SADC Regional Energy Access Strategy and Action Plan (REASAP) of 2020.
In addition, H.E Mr. Magosi briefly met some Ministers responsible for Energy and Finance as well as Multilateral Development Banks including participants from the World Bank, where he highlighted the important role that the energy sector plays in regional integration, however, financing gap for development of energy infrastructure remains one of the major challenges in the Region.
As part of the mission, the SADC Executive Secretary paid a courtesy call on H.E. Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, and
Chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation,
to provide briefing on the unfortunate prevailing security issues in the SADC region.
The SADC Executive Secretary was accompanied by the Senior Programme Officer responsible for Energy, Mr. Moses Ntlamelle.
