- USAID, AfDB, and SEforAll, among other development agencies, are partnering with the World Bank.
- The project will leverage over $1bn from private capital and global partners and $100m and $200m from GEAPP and JICA, respectively.
The World Bank announced on Friday that it has approved the Nigeria Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) project. This financing is part of its drive to provide over 17.5 million Nigerians with new or improved access to electricity through distributed renewable energy solutions. The World Bank disclosed that it funded the DARES project with an International Development Association (IDA) credit totalling $750 million.
According to a statement from the bank, the DARES project will use innovative financing solutions to scale up private sector-led clean electricity provision in Nigeria. The bank plans to achieve this by leveraging over $1 billion from private capital and additional financing from various global partners. It would also involve $100 million and $200 million in funding from the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet and the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
To achieve this project, a group of development agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), and the African Development Bank (AfDB) are partnering with the World Bank. The DARES project will focus on providing electricity access to more women and female-led businesses and target creating more jobs for women in the energy sector. It will also enable the federal government to coordinate and finance all off-grid electrification efforts and help states access technical assistance to develop institutional capacity and policy frameworks for rooftop solar.
DARES targets building on the achievements of the World Bank-financed Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP), which has supported the establishment of 125 mini-grids and the sale of over a million solar home systems, through which more than 5.5 million Nigerians have gained access to electricity. NEP has also resulted in the creation of over 5,000 private-sector local green jobs in Nigeria.