Nigeria, Others to Get $90bn World Bank Electricity Fund

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

A plan to bring electricity to 300 million Africans by 2030, backed by an initial pledge of $30 billion from the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) has begun to be implemented with an assessment of the first potential beneficiaries.

Some of the world’s most prominent climate organisations — the Rockefeller Foundation, Global Alliance for People and Planet and Sustainable Energy For All at the weekend announced the formation of a technical assistance facility to examine projects and help secure funding for those that qualify for the program known as Mission 300.

 The aim is to ultimately raise $90 billion or more from a range of sources, Bloomberg reported.

“Every project starts with a single payment,” President of the Rockefeller Foundation, Rajiv Shah, said in a response to questions.

“The technical assistance facility is designed to help the World Bank and African Development Bank jump start their ambitious electrification plans throughout sub-Saharan Africa,” Shah added.

The plan, if successful, would bring power to half of the 600 million Africans who don’t have access to electricity. The continent accounts for about three quarters of those without power globally with South Sudan, Burundi and Chad having electrification rates of less than 12 per cent of their populations.

That limits productivity and hampers economic growth in some of the poorest nations on earth.

“We’ve seen, frankly, stagnation” in getting electricity to more Africans over the last 15 years, Ashvin Dayal, who heads the Rockefeller Foundation’s power and climate programme, told Bloomberg TV’s Jennifer Zabasajja. “This is for us the defining climate and development challenge for the continent over the next 20 years,” he stressed.

The Rockefeller Foundation and GEAPP, which it founded together with the Bezos Earth Fund and the Ikea Foundation in 2021, is using an initial $10 million to help 15 projects across 11 African countries, ranging from Burkina Faso to Mozambique, get off the ground, the groups said in a statement. The programme will focus on clean-energy provision through technologies such as mini-grids.