- World Bank approves US$311m to increase grid-connected renewable energy capacity for West Africa.
- Liberia, Chad, Sierra Leone, and Togo to benefit from the new Regional Emergency Solar Power Intervention Project.
World Bank has approved US$311m to increase grid-connected renewable energy capacity for West Africa in International Development Association financing.
Liberia, Chad, Sierra Leone, and Togo are expected to benefit from the new Regional Emergency Solar Power Intervention Project, while a US$20m grant has been allocated to help facilitate future regional power trade and strengthen the institutional and technical capacities of the West Africa Power Pool to undertake its regional mandate.
West Africa has one of the lowest electrification rates coupled with some of the highest electricity costs in Sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, rising oil prices have increased the liabilities of electricity utilities and countries are staring at an acute power supply crisis that threatens to upend their economic growth.
The World Bank will finance the installation and operation of approximately 106 megawatts of solar photovoltaic with battery energy and storage systems, 41 megawatts expansion of hydroelectric capacity, and will support electricity distribution and transmission interventions across Liberia, Chad, Sierra Leone, and Togo.