The United Nations General Assembly convened in New York in September, bringing together high-level leaders from around the world. Among the government officials in attendance was Mozambique president Daniel Chapo. Speaking to the assembly on September 23, President Chapo highlighted Mozambique’s efforts to combat climate change as well as to stabilize its economy by expanding access to energy.
Through the Energy for All initiative, Mozambique has made significant progress on that expansion. Since 2018, it has nearly doubled its electricity access, from 31 percent to 60 percent. In so doing, it has become one of the fastest-electrifying countries in Africa.
“[T]he next step is to ensure that this energy increasingly contributes to economic growth.” These words were spoken on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly by Damilola Ogunbiyi, the executive director and special representative for the UN secretary-general for Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL). SEforALL is supporting the Mozambique government in creating a formal structure for funding off-grid electrification, a move designed to help the African nation reach its goal of achieving universal electricity access by 2030.
“Putting Energy at the Heart of Development”
While Mozambique has made great strides in expanding its power grid, much of its population lives in secluded rural areas, making an expansion of the grid to these communities impractical. The country has responded by identifying off-grid solutions. In order to reach its 2030 goal, it will need investments of $1.1 billion to support the development of these technologies.
Rather than seeking funding for solutions like mini-and micro-grids on a project-by-project basis, the program supported by SEforALL is proposing a coordinated financing framework. The framework, known as the Strategic Funding Coalition for Off-Grid Electrification, will speed funding and accelerate rural electrification. It will also drive economic growth by limiting risk and ensuring money invested in the country brings opportunities and jobs to the Mozambican people.
“Mozambique is putting energy at the heart of our development,” said President Chapo. “Through this coalition, we want to … turn our considerable renewable energy potential into jobs, growth and greater resilience for our people.”
Along with SEforALL, the proposed coalition comprises the Energy Fund of Mozambique (FUNAE), a public institution, and Enabel, a Belgian agency that coordinates international projects aimed at addressing urgent global challenges. The CEO of Enabel, Jean Van Wetter, was present at the announcement of the proposed partnership, which took place at a high-level roundtable at the UN General Assembly.
“Rural electrification must go beyond connections to create productive economies and resilient communities,” Van Wetter said in a statement. “The proposed coalition allows us to take that approach to scale, combining climate and development finance with private investment to build a sustainable market for rural energy.”
Following the launch of the initiative, SEforALL, FUNAE, and Enabel plan to spend nine months working together to develop a National Off-Grid Financing Roadmap. Through this process, the coalition will identify financing gaps as well as ways to reduce risk and mobilize public and private investments. A formal launch of the program is being targeted for November 2027.
Building on Ongoing Collaborations
The Strategic Funding Coalition for Off-Grid Electrification is not the only collaboration between SEforALL, FUNAE, and Enabel. At the General Assembly, the three organizations signed a letter of intent to jointly implement the PURE Rural Mozambique Climate program. Supported by the Green Climate Fund and the European Union, the program has attracted $42 in funding to implement solar-powered mini-solar grids and other renewable energy technologies. These measures will better the lives of 225,000 Mozambicans while preventing the release of more than 399,000 tons of cardon dioxide.
Providing access to renewable energy remains a goal as Mozambique works toward its 2030 target. Renewable energy currently constitutes 78.4 percent of the country’s energy profile. By 2030, it hopes to increase that number to 80.6 percent. Doing so would make it a hub for energy in the Southern Africa region and spur economic growth.
Enabel and FUNAE have also been collaborating elsewhere. For several years, Enabel has been working with FUNAE to address Mozambique’s evolving energy needs and establish financing pathways.
“Over the past three years, we have worked with FUNAE to strengthen its capacity to act as a fund and to mobilize and manage different sources of financing,” said Adriaan Tas, Enabel’s national director in Mozambique. “With the new coalition, we want to continue this work, bringing this experience closer to other partners and contributing to the mobilization of more resources for Mozambique’s off-grid electrification priorities.”
Looking to Brazil
Before he traveled to New York, President Chapo spoke at the 2026 Rio Oil & Gas Forum in Brazil. As he did at the UN days later, he highlighted his country’s goal of breaking from the past model of focusing solely on energy exports and instead on creating energy investment opportunities that benefit the Mozambican economy.
“We want use [energy] to industrialize Mozambique,” President Chapo said in his speech. He invited Brazilian companies to invest in his country’s energy sector, recognizing that many have technical expertise to extract natural gas, which he views as part of a “pragmatic and responsible” transition to renewable energy. “We are not looking only for suppliers. We are looking for partners.”