Labour unions in Nigeria and other African countries have rejected the African Development Bank (AfDB) and World Bank-backed ‘Mission 300’ electricity initiative, warning that the programme could plunge African countries deeper into debt while failing to deliver sustainable electricity access across the continent.

This is as the World Bank yesterday clarified its continued support for Nigeria’s electricity sector following the cancellation of about $717 million in undisbursed funds linked to a major power sector reform programme. The Bank stressed that its partnership with the Federal Government remains active through several ongoing projects aimed at improving electricity supply and access.

The unions, under the umbrella of International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa), Public Services International (PSI) and IndustriAll Global Union Sub-Saharan African Region, to which members of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) belong, argued that despite previous promises by international financial institutions, about 600 million Africans still lack access to electricity.

In a joint statement issued on the sidelines of the 2026 Annual Meeting of the African Development Bank in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, the unions said: “Mission 300 marks a continuation of the neoliberal approach to electrification. The policies proposed under Mission 300 are almost identical to the AfDB’s New Deal on Energy for Africa initiative, launched a decade ago.

“The New Deal pledged to mobilise private investment to achieve 100 per cent access in urban areas and 95 per cent access in rural areas by 2025. With 50 per cent of sub-Saharan Africans still without electricity at the beginning of 2026 — or roughly 600 million people — the New Deal was a spectacular failure.

“Mission 300 likely faces a similar fate because it also relies on ‘crowding in’ private investment by creating ‘bankable projects’ for private interests. The World Bank Group and the AfDB have pledged to mobilise $48 billion of concessional financing, but this financing will be contingent upon governments using the finance to ‘de-risk’ the investments of private companies.

“This, we believe, is both untenable and unjust. The World Bank’s own studies estimate that the financing gap for sub-Saharan Africa to reach 100 per cent electricity access is between 35 billion dollars and 50 billion dollars annually.

“We strongly suggest that the World Bank Group use its 2026 evaluation to seriously rethink its assumptions about relying on the private sector to lead Africa’s electrification, especially when it involves large amounts of borrowing, the burden of which will fall on governments already struggling to service existing debts.

“We are equally concerned that the African Union adopted Mission 300 without serious questions being asked, while governments continue to push reforms aimed at making utilities achieve ‘100 per cent operational cost recovery’ through tariff adjustments and efficiency measures.

“As unions representing energy sector workers, we have a close-up view of what ‘100 per cent operational cost recovery’ means in practice. Public utilities become so financially stressed that they are unable to improve or expand the infrastructure necessary for electrification.”

The unions called on African governments, the AfDB and the World Bank to adopt what they described as a “Reclaim and Restore” approach focused on rebuilding and strengthening public electricity utilities rather than relying heavily on private investors. According to them, “The current policy makes public utilities weaker to create space for the private sector, but the private sector has yet to show up.

MEANWHILE, the World Bank has confirmed the continuation of the Nigerian government’s $500 million Distribution Sector Recovery Programme (DISREP), providing relief to stakeholders amid concerns over the future of key power sector reform initiatives. The programme, backed by the World Bank, is designed to improve the financial and technical performance of Nigeria’s electricity distribution companies (DisCos) through investments in metering, network rehabilitation and operational efficiency.

The clarification followed concerns triggered by the cancellation of the $717 million undisbursed portion of the Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP) financing facility, which had raised questions about whether other electricity sector support programmes would also be affected since DISREP operates directly under the umbrella of the PSRP.

In a chat with newsmen yesterday, Senior External Affairs Officer of the World Bank, Mansir Nasir, explained that the decision formed part of a joint review with the Nigerian authorities and was influenced by changing conditions in the sector as well as implementation challenges affecting parts of the programme.

“The World Bank Group remains fully committed to supporting the Nigeria Distribution Sector Recovery Program, which is improving metering and distribution performance,” he said.

Nasir noted that although the cancelled component relates to the Power Sector Recovery Performance-Based Operation, the Bank is still funding and implementing other key interventions in Nigeria’s power industry. These include the Nigeria Electricity Transmission Project, which focuses on strengthening the national transmission network, the Distribution Sector Recovery Programme, which is aimed at improving billing and metering systems, and the Nigeria Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-Up project, designed to expand off-grid electricity solutions under broader continental energy access goals.

The affected programme, valued at about $752.5 million, had already recorded high levels of execution before the cancellation decision. Project records indicate that between 95 and 97 per cent of the approved funds had already been utilised in supporting reform efforts in the electricity value chain, leaving only a small balance tied to technical assistance and administrative adjustments.

According to the World Bank, the remaining portion was subject to a restructuring process that would have allocated about $23.5 million for technical support activities, with the intention of closing out the project in line with revised timelines and performance assessments.

Despite the cancellation of the undisbursed segment, the Bank reported that the programme had previously delivered notable improvements in the financial performance of the power sector. One of the key gains was seen in revenue collection by electricity distribution companies, where payments made to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading company rose significantly over time.