Walk through the streets of Johannesburg, Lagos, or Kinshasa, and the story is the same: the ambitions of people, aged or young, are stifled by a lack of consistent power. With over 60 of our region's population under 25 and unemployment at record highs, Africa urgently needs a long-lasting antidote to populations living without access to power or light. Stabilising its electricity supply will secure human dignity, safety, and economic opportunity. Millions still live without reliable power, which is needed to cook, learn, earn, or travel when it's dark. In other regions of the world, energy access is considered a fundamental human right, afforded to all, and serves as the foundation for prosperity.
The global climate finance system has the potential to coordinate action for urgent and clean energy access, but it continues to fall short. Despite bold rhetoric and pledges, Africa still receives only 3 of global climate finance . The African Development Bank estimates the continent will need more than 200bn annually for climate-related investments by 2030, but current flows remain slow, fragmented, and weighed down by high transaction costs.
Private investors remain cautious, citing impenetrable pipelines and policy uncertainty. Public funds, while critical, are often locked into disconnected donor-led projects that lack long-term national alignment.
To bridge this growing gap, country platforms offer a credible new solution, aligning national priorities with investor appetite. Country platforms can unlock the scale of private capital needed for Africa's climate-resilient development.
What are country platforms?Country platforms are government-led, nationally owned investment frameworks designed to align public and private capital with a country's climate and development priorities. They help governments define clear strategies, coordinate across ministries and with development partners, and build reliable pipelines of investable projects. With the right structure, country platforms can improve policy coherence, reduce duplication, and lower the cost of capital by boosting investor confidence. Crucially, they can unlock private finance and pool domestic capital at scale by matching climate finance with national delivery plans.