Yemi Olakitan
To meet its new objective to alleviate poverty on a “livable planet,” the World Bank says it will allocate $5 billion to deliver “reliable, affordable, renewable electricity” to 100 million Africans by the end of the decade.
The president of the development lender announced this on Wednesday. Ajay Banga said the World Bank must find ways to connect more people to a greener energy grid.
The World Bank estimates that around 600 million people in Africa do not have access to reliable electricity, a key factor hampering job creation and economic growth on the continent.
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Electricity “should be for everyone,” he told a meeting of the International Development Association (IDA) — the bank’s concessional lender to some of the world’s poorest countries — in Zanzibar, Tanzania, on Wednesday.
“With $5 billion from IDA, we are on a mission to deliver reliable, affordable, renewable electricity to 100 million Africans before 2030,” he said.
Alongside the commitment from IDA, the World Bank is looking to bring in an additional $10 billion in private and public funding to aid the project, he added.
The plan will look to modernize existing grids, build out solar power, improve reliability and boost cross-border trade in energy, he explained.
“We must find a way to finance a different world, where climate is protected and poverty is defeated,” he said.
