Jacqueline Novogratz

And while off-grid can't claim full credit, it's been an important part of the story.

And I've had the privilege of investing in and witnessing the evolution of this extraordinary off-grid sector that started off with lights, and then we saw home systems with radios and cell phone chargers, and then emerged the adjacent possible.

solar televisions and cook stoves and solar irrigation and refrigeration and e-mobility, and today you can see thousands of electric motorbikes powering down the streets of Kenya and Rwanda.

I've also been able to talk to so many customers across the continent,

like Susan, who said that what surprised her when she got her solar system was that she no longer experienced deep fear every single night.

She said, I used to fear bandits, wild animals, men.

or going to the toilet, her external toilet, and being bitten by a snake.

She said, now I don't feel stress.

My children and I have more connection, and indeed, they'd finished watching a course on their solar television to learn sign language in Kiswahili so that for the first time in their lives, they were able to communicate with their deaf cousins.

Energy is independence.

and it has great economic impact.

The average family reduces energy spending by more than 50 percent, and this is a sector that has created more than 370,000 good jobs.

We as a world are on track to reach another 300 million people by the end of the decade.

That still leaves hundreds of millions living in the dark.

these are the hardest to reach.

In places like Burundi, with an 11 percent electrification rate, Malawi, 16, Chad, 12.

And those aren't just statistics.

Those are human beings.

And yet too often, we dismiss them as too poor, too risky, too hard.

So let me say this clearly.