- The World Bank plans to provide clean and reliable energy to 20% un-electrified and over 200,000 MSMEs by 2030.
- In Nigeria alone, over 85 million people, more than four out of 10, are deprived of electricity.
The World Bank has revealed plans to power over 200,000 micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and 20 per cent of the un-electrified by 2030. This is as it decried Nigeria’s energy poverty, describing it as a paradox despite its enormous resources. The World Bank’s Managing Director for Operations, Anna Bjerde, disclosed this in a piece titled: “Lighting Up Africa: Nigeria Can Show the Way,” which she made available exclusively to THISDAY. The senior World Bank official stated that despite progress in the past 20 years globally, Africa has been the exception regarding electricity supply.
Barde reiterated that over 600 million people were without access to reliable electricity on the African continent, where electrification efforts haven’t kept pace with population growth. She said that in Nigeria alone, over 85 million people, more than four out of 10 persons, suffer electricity deprivation. According to her, without the lifeblood of electricity, communities will struggle to preserve crops, irrigate their fields, engage in economic activities, run health clinics, or allow children to study or play in decent and safe conditions.
On what the World Bank was doing to alleviate the situation, she noted, “We have launched a ground-breaking programme called DARES (Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-Up), which will provide access to clean and reliable energy to 20 per cent of the un-electrified and over 200,000 Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) by 2030 through private sector interventions. To create the conditions for even greater victories, we are working closely with the Nigerian authorities on grid reforms and sector performance improvements.”
In addition, she said governments, starting with Nigeria, needed to take the lead in jump-starting the clean energy revolution through reforms and stable policy and regulatory frameworks supported by concessional finance that can attract considerable amounts of private finance. According to her, DARES prioritises affordability by providing highly targeted subsidies to populations that need it most. Bjerde noted that the programme is doing this by linking access solutions to productive uses of electricity and scalability. This, she said, is by catalysing upfront private investments and accelerating the deployment of mini-grids and standalone solar solutions.