A connection is not enough. Keep the lights on.

The promise of electricity is what people can do with it tomorrow—not only the photograph of a switch being turned on.

OPINION · THE DAILY PULSE EDITORIAL

A stopped machine is not an abstract development indicator. For a workshop, it can mean an unfinished order. For a food seller, spoiled stock. These are examples of what unreliable power can put at risk, not claims about named businesses. The moment a light comes on deserves celebration. The next working day deserves just as much attention.

Our view is that access should be the start of the electricity conversation, not the end. Households and businesses need to know what a connection can actually support and what it will cost over time.

The goal is bigger than a wire

Mission 300, led by the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank with partners, aims to connect 300 million people to electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. Its public description also emphasises generation, transmission, reliability and affordability. This is a target, not a claim that those connections have already been delivered.

The broader framing matters. Energy programmes should not have to choose between reaching new users and taking existing users’ service problems seriously. A connection count can tell us about scale; it cannot by itself tell us whether someone can operate a refrigerator or complete a paid job without interruption.

Design around the work people do

A household’s needs differ from a clinic’s or a welding business’s. Different places may require different combinations of grid investment, mini-grids and other systems. We should resist arguments that declare one technology the answer for every African community.

A serious plan includes maintenance, replacement costs and a clear path for resolving faults. The person expected to use the service should understand its limits before making a commitment around it.

There is an important counterargument: reaching people quickly often requires staged improvements, and demanding perfect service immediately can slow progress. That is fair. A modest but dependable first step may be better than waiting indefinitely. What matters is honesty about what is being provided and a credible route to improvement.

The voices of users in Central, East and Southern Africa belong in this discussion, alongside the experiences of other regions. A rural household, an urban tenant and a small manufacturer do not need the same solution.

We should celebrate every real improvement while asking the next question. After the switch is turned on, can the person use electricity to make their life more secure? That is the outcome worth keeping in view.