The World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have announced plans to partner to provide access to energy for 300 million Africans by 2030.
The plan will cost around $30 billion and is to be funded by the World Bank through the International Development Association (IDA) and the AfDB together with governments across the continent and the private sector.
Announcing the partnership during the panel session on Energizing Africa: What Will It Take to Accelerate Access & Improve Lives? at the World Bank’s Spring Meetings in Washington DC on Wednesday, Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank, said for the plan to be brought to life, there is a need for policy action from governments, as well as investments from the private sector and multilateral organisations.
- He said, “Once we get the summit going, we need to be focused on that there is the target of 300 million, there is a date of 2030, and we don’t want to go past 2030. There are focus plans and KPIs built. Some of these would evolve as we go along in countries, but we have to understand that as development professionals, we have to run with what we have”
What the AfDB is saying
On his part, the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwunmi Adesina, lamented that there are about 600 million people without access to electricity in Africa, calling it an “embarrassment”.
However, he stated that the bank plans to host the Africa Energy Summit where stakeholders from both the private and public sectors will interact on mechanisms for harnessing Africa’s energy potential across different energy sources from wind to solar, hydro and thermal.
- According to Dr. Adesina, “We’ve set a target for ourselves, and we have work to do. We need governments, the private sector and make sure the multilateral financial institutions put in project development facilities, risk facilities, and the regulatory environment which is very important this means we need a multi-stakeholder consultation process to have the road map to get there.”
What you should know
About 83% of the world’s population without access to electricity presently live in Africa. The World Bank and the AfBD plan to halve this number by 2030. The World Bank will invest in providing electricity access to 250 million people while the AfDB caters to 50 million to complete the figure.
According to the World Bank, connecting 250 million Africans to electricity would attract around $9 billion in renewable energy investments from the private sector.