Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Others To Benefit From $90bn World Bank Electricity Fund

Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mozambique and some other African countries are targeted to benefit from $90 billion electricity funds from the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

The Rockefeller Foundation, Global Alliance for People and Planet, and Sustainable Energy For All who are among leading climate organizations on Friday disclosed the launch for a new technical assistance facility.

According to information, the plan is to split the $90 billion needed in funding equally between public funds, concessional and philanthropic finance and commercial commitments.

It added that possible sources include the International Monetary Fund’s Resilience and Sustainability Trust and re-channeled special drawing rights, which are reserve assets issued by the IMF to its members.

According to the information, under the program, countries will be encouraged to boost their access to funding by committing to reforms that encourage the roll out of green energy.

It added that the fund is part of the plan from the global financial institution to provide electricity to 300 million African population by the year 2023.

It also said that the project is part of the Mission 300 program, with the aim to assess and support projects, helping them secure funding if they meet the program’s criteria.

The Rockefeller Foundation, in partnership with the Bezos Earth Fund and the Ikea Foundation, founded the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) in 2021.

A joint statement from the organizations explained that the institutions will be providing an initial $10 million through the World Bank to support 15 clean energy projects across 11 African countries, including Burkina Faso and Mozambique.

It added that the project is to advance clean-energy solutions, with a focus on technologies like mini-grids,

According to the statement, Nigeria being an integral part of Mission 300, has been approved as a major beneficiary of the project through the Nigeria Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES project.

The World Bank explained that the initiative will benefit over 17.5 million Nigerians, or 20% of the country’s currently unserved population. It added that it will replace over 250,000 polluting and expensive diesel generators.

Head, the Rockefeller Foundation’s power and climate program, Ashvin Dayal, said: “We’ve seen, frankly, stagnation in getting electricity to more Africans over the last 15 years. This is for us the defining climate and development challenge for the continent over the next 20 years.”

GEAPP said the fund will create a massive fund-raising and advocacy effort to elevate action and mobilize the resources required in order to help raise some of the funds.

Chief Executive Officer, GEAPP, Woochong Um, said: “We need to make sure that we create bankable projects that deliver impact and commercially sound returns.

“We will launch a massive fund-raising and advocacy effort to elevate action and mobilize the resources required.”