At the spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) announced an unprecedented partnership to electrify 300 million Africans over the next six years. With a $30 billion funding commitment, this strategic collaboration aims to address the pressing challenge of limited access to electricity for nearly 600 million Africans. By leveraging additional private investments and targeting renewable energies, the two institutions aim to transform the continent’s energy outlook and stimulate its economic development.
During the spring meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) joined forces to launch an ambitious partnership aimed at electrifying 300 million Africans over the next six years. This unprecedented collaboration seeks to address the significant challenge of limited access to electricity for nearly 600 million Africans.
This strategic partnership entails a $30 billion funding commitment from the World Bank to reach at least 250 million Africans by 2030. Upon announcing this partnership on April 17, 2024, Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group, underscored the critical importance of electricity for economic development and large-scale job creation, and called for bold partnerships to realize this ambition.
The funding will primarily flow through the International Development Association (IDA), the concessional arm of the World Bank for low-income countries, to catalyze additional private investments of around $9 billion, particularly in grid-connected renewable energies.
Simultaneously, the AfDB pledges to mobilize the necessary resources to electrify 50 million Africans by 2030. Together, these two institutions aim to support the electrification of 300 million people over the next six years.
The World Bank and the AfDB have already collaborated on several electrification initiatives in Africa, including co-financing the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP) in 2018, which mobilized $550 million for the deployment of off-grid solar systems in rural areas of the country.
