In line with its High 5 development priorities and, in particular, its agenda to Light up and power Africa, the AfDB plans to reach 29.3 million people in Africa with electricity by 2020.The president of the bank, Akinwumi Adesina, made this disclosure at the high level event on “New Way of Working: From Vision to Action-National, Regional and Global Dimensions” at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Adesina pledged support for the New Way of Working as “crucially important” and indicated that it requires a new way of tackling development issues.
“The African Development Bank is today at the forefront of investing in renewable energy in Africa. The share of renewable energy in the Bank’s energy portfolio increased from 14% when I became President in 2015 to 100% last year,” President Adesina said. “Our support last year alone provided 3.8 million Africans with access to electricity. And, with adequate financing, we expect to reach 29.3 million people with access to electricity between 2018 and 2020.”
In addition to committing the bank’s support, Adesina called on the UN Secretary General to join him in supporting the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility to also work differently and step up support to co-pay for climate risk insurance for vulnerable African countries, noting that African countries, hit by climate change, are hard pressed to find funds to pay the insurance premiums.
One of the initiatives that will help the AfDB in meeting its goal of providing electricity people on the continent is the Desert to Power initiative. Spearheaded by the AfDB, the Desert to Power initiative, aims to turn Africa’s deserts into new sources of energy, by working with partners to develop 10,000 MW of solar power systems across the Sahel. The initiative is expected to provide electricity to 250 million people, with 90 million of these provided through off-grid systems.
“We have already started with development of a 50 MW solar power system in Burkina Faso,” Adesina said. “The initiative will protect the Great Green Wall of trees established to protect against desertification in the Sahelian zone, from being cut down by energy-poor households for use as fuel wood. When completed, we expect this to be the largest solar power system zone in the world.”