World Bank issues more off-grid electricity access project funds
The World Bank has approved a total of $22.5 million in additional financing to the Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project in Western and Central Africa.
The financing comes in the form of grants from the International Development Association and the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) to support the development of the market for stand-alone solar products in Western and Central Africa, including a dedicated effort for the Sahel countries. This complements the $150 million of IDA and $67.2 million CTF approved by the Board in April 2019 for this project.
The project will support activities to accelerate the deployment of stand-alone solar products, in a sub-region where 50% of the population does not have access to electricity, and where less than 3% of the population uses such innovative technologies.
The project’s geographic scope covers 19 countries in Western and Central Africa, 15 of which are members of ECOWAS (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo), as well as Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, and Mauritania.
