African Labour Unions Reject Mission 300 Electrification Plan
Africa’s largest labour federations have formally rejected the Mission 300 electrification initiative jointly backed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank, warning that the ambitious programme risks plunging the continent into deeper indebtedness while failing to deliver sustainable electricity access to the estimated 600 million Africans still living without power.
The position was articulated in a joint statement issued on the sidelines of the 2026 Annual Meeting of the African Development Bank in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, by the International Trade Union Confederation Africa (ITUC Africa), Public Services International (PSI), and the IndustriAll Global Union Sub Saharan African Region. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) are affiliates of these umbrella bodies.
Mission 300, formally launched in 2024, aims to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030. To finance the rollout, the World Bank Group and the AfDB jointly pledged $48bn in concessional financing, much of which is structured around mobilising private capital through what the institutions describe as “bankable projects.”
The unions argue that this private capital model has already failed once. According to their statement, Mission 300 mirrors the AfDB’s earlier “New Deal on Energy for Africa,” launched roughly a decade ago, which promised universal urban electricity access and 95 percent rural access by 2025.
“With 50 percent of sub Saharan Africans still without electricity at the beginning of 2026, or roughly 600 million people, the New Deal was a spectacular failure,” the unions stated. “Mission 300 likely faces a similar fate because it also relies on ‘crowding in’ private investment by creating ‘bankable projects’ for private interests.”
Citing the World Bank’s own estimates, the unions noted that the financing gap required to achieve full electrification in sub Saharan Africa stands between $35bn and $50bn annually, dwarfing the $48bn concessional package pledged under Mission 300 over multiple years.
The unions further warned that the $48bn would be contingent on governments using the funds to “de risk” private sector investments, a structure they described as “both untenable and unjust” given the existing debt distress across the continent. According to the International Monetary Fund, more than half of low income African nations are already in or at high risk of debt distress as of 2025.
The federations also raised concerns over reform conditions pushing public utilities toward “100 percent operational cost recovery” through tariff hikes and efficiency measures.
“Public utilities become so financially stressed that they are unable to improve or expand infrastructure necessary for electrification,” the joint statement noted.
Rather than relying on private capital, the unions called for a “Reclaim and Restore” approach centred on rebuilding public utilities. They expressed concern that the African Union endorsed Mission 300 “without serious questions being asked.”
“We are convinced that Mission 300 will not be able to deliver on its 300 million target by 2030 based on the current set of policies. Any electrification that might occur in the coming years will impose an intolerable debt burden on governments, as public money is used to subsidise the profits of energy companies, many of which are multinationals based outside Africa,” the unions concluded.
Neither the AfDB nor the World Bank has issued a public response to the joint statement as of the time of filing this report.