World Bank Unveils $5 Billion Renewable Energy Plan For Africa

By the end of the decade, the World Bank will allocate $5 billion to provide 100 million Africans with “reliable, affordable, renewable electricity”, the development lender’s president said on Wednesday.

According to World Bank estimates, 600 million people in Africa lack access to consistent power, a major barrier to the continent’s ability to create jobs and grow economically.

Naija News reports that the President of World Bank, Ajay Banga, stated that the World Bank needs to figure out how to get more people connected to a more environmentally friendly electricity grid in order to achieve its new goal of reducing poverty on a “livable planet.”

At a conference of the International Development Association (IDA), the bank’s concessional lender to some of the world’s poorest nations, in Zanzibar, Tanzania, on Wednesday, he said that electricity “should be for everyone.”

“With $5 billion from IDA, we are on a mission to deliver reliable, affordable, renewable electricity to 100 million Africans before 2030,” he said.

He said that in addition to IDA’s pledge, the World Bank hopes to get an additional $10 billion in public and private funding to support the project.

He clarified that the goal of the strategy is to increase cross-border energy trade, expand solar power, modernize current grids, and improve dependability.

“We must find a way to finance a different world, where climate is protected and poverty is defeated,” he added.