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World Bank commits $5bn to boost power supply in Nigeria, others

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The World Bank Group has com­mitted $5 billion in new technical and financial support

for energy proj­ects in six African coun­tries, namely, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania, who partnered with President Obama’s Power Africa ini­tiative.

World Bank Group Presi­dent, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, who made the announcement yes­terday, at the second day of the first US-Africa Summit, noted that the new financial commitment was urgently needed to generate more electricity for the people of Africa, 600 million of whom have no access to electric­ity despite the fact that Af­rica possesses some of the world’s largest hydropower, geothermal, wind and solar potential, as well as signifi­cant oil and natural gas re­serves.

“We think that the US Power Africa initiative will play an extremely important role in achieving the goal of providing electricity for Africa. So today I’m very pleased to announce that the World Bank Group, follow­ing President Obama’s lead, will partner Power Africa by committing $5 billion in direct financing, investment guarantees and advisory ser­vices for project preparation in Power Africa’s six initial partner countries, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Ni­geria, and Tanzania. The US government and the World Bank Group are working now on specific tasks and milestones which could help to achieve one quarter of Power Africa’s goal of gen­erating 10,000 megawatts of new power in sub-Saharan Africa,” Kim said.

He also stated that Africa’s power crisis forces families and communities to spend significant amounts of their income on costly and un­healthy forms of energy, such as diesel generators or wood fire for indoor cooking.

“Africa has vast hydro­power potential but uses just 8 per cent of this untapped water force. In comparison, Western Europe uses 85 per cent of its available hydro­power potential, which has contributed to their econom­ic development and industri­alization,” he added.

Also speaking at the event, the World Bank’s Vice Presi­dent for Africa, Makhtar Diop, said: “Like Europe and the rest of the world, Africa deserves the same opportuni­ty to exploit this green source of power to improve the lives and economic prospects of its people.

“Beyond building up power generators, they must be connected to the market, which calls for regional co­operation to build the trans­mission network. We are working with African leaders and their development part­ners to create power pools in Africa’s East, West, Central and Southern sub-regions. Those countries with abun­dant geothermal, gas, hydro, solar and wind resources can feed their excess power supply into a common pool, while neighbouring states with less energy and gen­eration capacity can benefit from this integrated approach to delivering electricity to their people,” he explained.

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