African Development Bank’s SEFA Secures Nearly €50 Million in Fresh Funding for Just Energy Transition and Mission 300

The African Development Bank’s Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) has obtained new donor commitments totalling close to €50 million to accelerate Africa’s just energy transition and advance Mission 300, the continent-wide initiative to provide electricity access to 300 million people by 2030.
The pledges were formally announced on 14 November at a high-level side event in the Africa Pavilion during COP30:
Germany committed €44 million in total, comprising €14 million to support universal energy access under Mission 300 and €30 million to launch SEFA’s new green hydrogen programme.
Italy pledged an additional €5 million to the fund in 2025.
Dr Katharina Stasch, Director-General for Climate Policy at Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), described the partnership as a strategic “win-win” that would foster African industrial development, job creation and technology transfer while helping Europe diversify its future clean-energy imports.
Roberto Amerise, Director for International Cooperation at Italy’s Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, underlined Africa’s priority status in Italy’s energy and climate strategy and stressed the need to mobilise private capital for the continent’s sustainable development.
AfDB Vice-President for Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth, Dr Kevin Kariuki, welcomed the contributions as critical momentum for Mission 300 and SEFA’s broader role in achieving universal electricity access across Africa.
The event, moderated by AfDB Renewable Energy Director Dr Daniel Schroth, also recognised continuing support from partners such as Norway and showcased concrete examples of SEFA-backed projects, including:
Egypt’s 1 GW Obelisk project (1 GW solar PV + 200 MWh battery storage), co-financed by AfDB and SEFA and developed by Scatec.
The rapid scale-up of clean cooking solutions by Kenya-based BURN, a SEFA grant recipient now serving millions of households.
Panellists emphasised the pivotal role of blended finance in de-risking investments, the need for predictable regulatory frameworks, and the opportunity to leverage falling renewable-energy costs to attract commercial capital at scale.
The new commitments reinforce SEFA’s position as a leading catalytic instrument for bankable renewable-energy projects and underscore growing international consensus that accelerated, equitable energy access is essential to both Africa’s development and global climate goals.