Washington — The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors approved today a total of $22.5 million in additional financing to the Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project (ROGEAP) -in the form of grants from the International Development Association (IDA)* and the Clean Technology Fund (CTF)-- to support the development of the market for stand-alone solar products in Western and Central Africa, including a dedicated effort for the Sahel countries. This complements the $150 million of IDA and $67.2 million CTF approved by the Board in April 2019 for this project.
The project will support activities to accelerate the deployment of stand-alone solar products, in a sub-region where 50 percent of the population does not have access to electricity, and where less than 3 percent of the population uses such innovative technologies. It seeks to harmonize policies and standards as well as business procedures to develop a regional market of stand-alone solar products, support entrepreneurs in business acceleration activities, and provide credits and grants for the deployment of stand-alone solar home systems.
...