Malawi is among 13 African countries that are set to benefit from a new $3.9 million African Development Bank (AfDB) technical assistance project.
Other beneficiaries are Chad, Gabon, Tanzania, Mauritania, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Nigeria, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Namibia and Uganda.
The initiative is aimed at turning national energy plans into concrete electricity connections under the Mission 300 initiative.
The two-year project, known as the Africa Energy Sector Technical Assistance Programme (AESTAP) Mission 300 Phase II, will support countries to implement their national energy compacts, which outline how governments intend to expand electricity access, strengthen power utilities and attract private investment.
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In a publication dated January 30, 2026, AfDB says the programme will, over the next 24 months, provide direct technical assistance to help countries move from documented plans to actual electricity connections for homes, schools, hospitals and businesses.
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The bank says the second phase will focus on improving electricity regulations, planning and tariff systems to unlock investment, strengthening utilities to reduce losses and improve reliability and placing expert advisers within national compact delivery and monitoring units (CDMUs) to coordinate reforms and track progress.
AfDB Director for Energy Financial Solutions, Policy and Regulation Wale Shonibare says countries have made ambitious commitments through their energy compacts.
“Now, through AESTAP Mission 300 Phase II, we are helping them implement those commitments so that more households, entrepreneurs and communities actually get electricity,” he says.
The new phase follows the approval of AESTAP Mission 300 Phase I in December 2025, when it provided about $1 million to help countries establish and operate their CDMUs.
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Energy policy expert Edgar Kapiza Bayani said Malawi had policy frameworks in place but required more resources to realise the 70 percent electricity connections coverage target by 2030.
“I wish we had more resources going directly towards increasing the generation capacity of the country, direct resources going towards supporting off-grid energy players to deploy more mini-grids, more home systems and all that. But this grant essentially is just the technical implementation [part],” Bayani said.
Bayani said the mini-grid sub-sector in Malawi needed $ 1.1 billion to take off.
He therefore expressed mixed feelings on Malawi achieving the 2030 targets without more direct resources to implement activities that would accelerate electricity access.
“I am not saying we don’t need technical assistance in some areas but I think, from 2016, there have been quite a number of reforms that have been happening and what we need are the resources to go to the next level,” Bayani said.
Under Mission 300, Malawi is implementing the Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Access Transformation programme with a $250.8 million World Bank grant signed in January 2025.
The grant is aimed at increasing national electricity access from about 25 percent to 70 percent by 2030.
According to the Malawi National Energy Compact, achieving this target will require an additional 1.15 million on-grid connections and 1.55 million off-grid connections, as well as expanding installed generation capacity by 848 megawatts through a mix of technologies.
Mission 300 is a joint AfDB-World Bank initiative that seeks to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030.
