World Bank to Connect 300 Million Africans to Electricity With $35 Billion Plan
- Some half of Africa’s 1.2 billion population lack electricity
- World Bank to use IDA top-up this year to fund the plan
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The World Bank Group plans to connect 300 million Africans to electricity in partnership with with the African Development Bank, under an ambitious project that would halve the number of people living without access to power on the continent by 2030.
The World Bank will work to connect 250 million people to electricity while the African Development Bank Group will support an additional 50 million people, the Washington-based lender said. The plan will cost as much as $35 billion, some of which will come from from the International Development Association, the World Bank’s concessional arm for low-income countries, Ajay Banga, the lender’s president, said in a speech Wednesday.