World Bank to invest USD 5bn in Africa’s energy sector

Aug 7, 2014 - The World Bank on Tuesday said it would provide USD 5 billion (EUR 3.7bn) in technical and financial aid for the development of power projects in Africa, including renewables.

The projects will be developed under the US government’s Power Africa initiative that aims to develop 1 GW of wind, geothermal and gas-fired projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The financing will be provided for projects in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, and Tanzania, the World Bank’s President Jim Yong Kim said during a three-day US-Africa summit in Washington. Investment guarantees and advisory services are also included in the package.

At present, about 600 million of Africa’s population has no access to electricity although the continent has some of the biggest renewable energy potentials in the world and also has oil and natural gas reserves. Africa uses only 8% of its hydropower resources.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.748)

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