27 Jan 2025

While Africa targets to enhance access to energy by getting 300 million of its people on the grid by 2030, Botswana has an even more ambitious plan as the country aspires to attain 100 per cent access to electricity within the same period.

“Our ambition is to make sure that we have 100 per cent energy access; that is all household access by 2030. What we wish to achieve here is to speak to financial partners, institutions and philanthropists that can help us to achieve that,” said the Minister of Minerals and Energy, Ms Bogolo Kenewendo in an interview on the sidelines of the two-day Africa Heads of State Energy Summit held in Tanzania yesterday.

She noted that the gathering presented a platform for Botswana to find partners and speak to financiers that could help the country achieve its noble aspirations.

Minister Kenewendo revealed that government had in recent days been engaging with stakeholders within the energy sector toward the 100 per cent energy access target.

She said some key pointers from stakeholder consultations, included the high cost of capital, which she noted had compelled Botswana as a middle-income country to explore possible ways of continuing to benefit from multi-lateral funding through extra concessional lending.

“The cost of capital right now is really high and can be prohibitive to the development of infrastructure projects and some of the energy projects,” Ms Kenewendo said.

She added that with Botswana not a member country of the International Development Association, a part of the World Bank that provides grants and low-interest loans to low-income countries, it was crucial that the country addressed how it could still benefit from multi-lateral funding through extra concessional lending and funding to drive its high ambitions.

The minister said from the summit, they would also benchmark on latest innovations which could assist in reducing the cost of electricity access to consumers.

Dubbed the Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit, this year’s gathering offers governments, private sector leaders, development partners, and civil society the platform to advance Africa’s ambitious goal of providing electricity access to 300 million people by 2030, a target which was announced by the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group and the World Bank Group last April.

The summit is expected to culminate in a Dar es Salaam Energy Declaration, which attending Heads of State will endorse.

Meanwhile, President Advocate Duma Boko has joined other Heads of State at the summit co-hosted by the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, the African Development Bank Group and the World Bank Group.

A press release from the Ministry for International Relations says the President and his delegation are expected back home today. ENDS