World Bank AfDB, partner to provide access to energy for 300 m Africans by 2030

ilenre Irele

The World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have disclosed plans to partner to provide access to energy for 300 million Africans by 2030.

According to the deal, the plan gulp about $30 billion and is expected 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 , Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank, said the partnership will ease energy crisis on continent.

He noted that for the plan to see light of day, 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”

There are about 600 million people without access to electricity in Africa, ,Adesina referred to this situation as “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.”