Online Reporter
The World Bank and African Development Bank laid out the terms African nations will need to meet to win US$40 billion in finance to tackle the continent’s electricity crisis.
The two multilateral lenders are backing a program called Mission 300 that aims to bring electricity to 300 million Africans by 2030 with a pledge of $30 billion in finance, on top of which they expect US$10 billion from private institutions.
To get the support of the institutions, countries will need to undertake a number of steps including putting in place regulation that makes it attractive for private investment and committing to using the lowest cost electricity, which is generally renewable power.
Thirteen countries will present their plans at a head of state Mission 300 energy summit in Tanzania at the end of this month.
“Of the 680 million people globally without electricity access 570 million live in sub-Saharan Africa,” Franz Drees-Gross, director of infrastructure in Western and central Africa for the World Bank, told journalists on Thursday. “Against that backdrop, and also very high population growth in Africa, that’s making it very difficult to make progress in increasing coverage.”
The two banks expect to see the programme win support from private sector developers, financial institutions, sovereign wealth funds and philanthropies by making investing in renewable energy across the sub-Saharan region more profitable.
Participating countries are also expected to commit to running competitive tenders for power generation projects built by private companies and to make sure their utilities charge high enough prices to cover their operating costs. They are also expected to lay out a plan to deliver universal access to power in their countries. — Bloomberg
