WASHINGTON,
USA
The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a total of U$22.5 million in additional financing to the Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project (ROGEAP).
This will be in the form of grants from the International
Development Association (IDA) 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 U$150 million of IDA and U$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.
It seeks to harmonize policies and standards as well as business
procedures to develop a regional market of stand-alone solar products, support
entrepreneurs in business acceleration activities, and provide credits and
grants for the deployment of stand-alone solar home systems.
The project is expected to contribute to human capital
development by electrifying public health centers and schools which are needed
to improve health and education outcomes.
It will also support job creation, for instance in the farming
communities which can use solar water pumps for irrigation, solar milling
equipment for product transformation, and solar refrigerators to bring products
to market.
The project will support the small and innovative business
enterprises through solar home systems and will make an impact in economic
recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.
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.
“Stand-alone solar systems have a large market potential in
Western and Central Africa including in the Sahel, but investments in off-grid
solutions have lagged behind in the sub-region”, said Ms. Deborah Wetzel,
World Bank Director of Regional Integration for Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle
East, and Northern Africa.
“The new financing will help address the important growth in
demand for reliable electricity and will help create jobs for the millions of
people currently living without an electricity connection or with unreliable
supply, as well as for businesses and public institutions who will use modern
stand-alone solar systems to improve their living standards and economic
activities”.
Through this additional funding and restructuring, the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been appointed as a new
implementing agency of the project, which will work on developing a regional
market, and supporting activities for entrepreneurs.
ECOWAS will coordinate the project activities with the West
African Development Bank (BOAD), the other implementing agency of the project,
which will support the provision of a line of credit with commercial banks
operating in the sub-region.
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