WB approves US$750m for clean energy projects
The World Bank has approved a credit of US$750 million for clean energy projects in Nigeria to boost electricity access in Africa’s most populous nation.
The bank revealed this on Friday, stressing that more than 85 million people lacked access to electricity in Nigeria as of 2021, with households and businesses reliant on expensive diesel and petrol generators.
The bank said the Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) project will be financed by the International Development Association and will leverage over US$1 billion of private capital and financing from development partners to provide access to new or improved electricity supplies to more than 17,5 million Nigerians.
Shubham Chaudhuri, World Bank Country Director for Nigeria noted that the project is the largest-ever single distributed energy project by the World Bank globally.
“We are committed to expanding clean energy-based access in Nigeria, with the US$750 million Nigeria DARES project being the largest ever single distributed energy project of the World Bank globally,”
“It will benefit over 17,5 million unserved, underserved, rural, and remote Nigerians through the deployment of standalone solar and mini grids and replace more than 280,000 polluting and expensive petrol and diesel generator sets, an important step for Nigeria towards achieving its energy transition targets,” he said.
“Through the DARES project, Nigeria will be able to provide up to 237 000 MSMEs with reliable and clean electricity for productive uses that will help improve their potential to generate income and create local jobs,” he added. — Business Insider Africa
