By Business Insider Reporter
For years, African governments have unveiled ambitious plans to expand electricity access, reform utilities, and attract private capital into power generation.
Yet across much of the continent – including East Africa – the gap between policy promises and power flowing into homes and factories has remained stubbornly wide.
Now, the African Development Bank (AfDB) says it wants to close that gap.
At the end of January, the AfDB’s Board of Directors approved a new two-year, US$3.9 million technical assistance programme aimed at helping African countries translate their National Energy Compacts into real electricity connections.
The initiative, known as AESTAP Mission 300 Phase II, sits at the heart of Mission 300 – the joint AfDB–World Bank drive to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030.
For East Africa, where energy shortages continue to constrain industrial growth, investment, and job creation, the programme could prove especially consequential.
From plans on paper to power on the ground
National Energy Compacts are central to Mission 300. They are country-owned plans in which governments spell out how they will expand access to electricity, strengthen utilities, reform regulation, and crowd in investment from both public and private sources.
Over the past year, dozens of African countries have launched these compacts, often with strong political backing and public commitments from development partners.
But experience shows that launching a plan is the easy part. Implementing reforms – especially in politically sensitive areas like tariffs, utility restructuring, and regulation – is far more difficult.
That is where the new AfDB-backed programme comes in.
AESTAP Mission 300 Phase II will provide hands-on technical support to 13 countries, including Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, alongside Nigeria, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Lesotho and others. The focus is firmly upstream: fixing the policy, regulatory, and institutional bottlenecks that prevent investment and delay connections.
“Countries have made bold commitments through their energy compacts,” said Wale Shonibare, Director of Energy Financial Solutions, Policy and Regulation at the AfDB. “Now, through AESTAP Mission 300 Phase II, we are helping them implement those commitments so that more households, entrepreneurs, and communities actually get electricity.”
Why East Africa is watching closely
East Africa has made notable progress on electrification over the past decade, but the region still faces deep structural challenges. Utilities struggle with financial sustainability, transmission and distribution losses remain high, and tariff structures often fail to balance affordability with cost recovery.
In Tanzania, for example, demand for power continues to grow alongside industrialisation and urban expansion, yet the sector faces pressure from investment needs and utility performance. Kenya, while a regional leader in renewable energy, still grapples with high electricity costs and utility debt. Uganda, despite surplus generation capacity, faces bottlenecks in transmission and distribution that limit access.
By focusing on regulation, planning, and utility reform, the AfDB programme aims to tackle these constraints head-on.
In practical terms, Phase II will help governments improve electricity regulations and tariff frameworks so projects can reach financial close faster. It will support utilities to strengthen operations, cut losses, and deliver more reliable power. And it will embed expert advisers within national Compact Delivery and Monitoring Units (CDMUs)—specialised teams inside governments tasked with coordinating reforms across ministries and tracking progress.
Building on early groundwork
The newly approved programme builds on AESTAP Mission 300 Phase I, approved in December 2025 with funding of about US$1 million.
That first phase focused on setting up and operationalising CDMUs – training staff, establishing monitoring systems, and helping governments organise complex reform agendas.
Phase II moves from preparation to execution.
Rather than duplicating efforts, the AfDB says the programme will be closely coordinated with other Mission 300 partners, including the World Bank and bilateral development agencies. The aim is to ensure that technical support, financing, and policy dialogue all pull in the same direction.
Investment climate, not just megawatts
For business leaders and investors, the significance of the programme goes beyond electrification statistics.
Reliable and affordable power remains one of the most important determinants of competitiveness in East Africa.
Manufacturers, agro-processors, data centres, and service firms all depend on predictable electricity supply. Frequent outages or high tariffs translate directly into higher costs and lost productivity.
By strengthening regulation and utility performance, AfDB officials argue, countries can create a more credible investment climate – one in which private capital is more willing to fund generation, transmission, and distribution projects.
The use of regional tools such as the Electricity Regulatory Index and cross-country learning platforms also signals an effort to benchmark performance and spread best practice across borders.
A test of political will
Still, success is far from guaranteed. Energy reforms often collide with political realities, especially where tariff adjustments or utility restructuring affect voters.
Analysts note that technical assistance can only go so far without sustained political commitment. The real test for Mission 300 countries – including those in East Africa – will be whether governments are willing to follow through on difficult reforms once the advisers are in place.
If they do, the payoff could be substantial: faster connections, more competitive industries, and stronger economic growth. If not, the risk remains that energy compacts will join a long list of well-written plans that never fully deliver. For now, the AfDB’s latest move signals a clear shift from ambition to implementation – an approach many in East Africa’s business community will be watching closely.
