World Bank initiative, Lighting Africa, began its goal to provide up to 250 million people in sub-Saharan Africa with lighting powered by alternative energy by 2030, with plans to now venture into Ethiopia. The East African country’s Ministry of Water and Energy (MoWE) signed a MoU with the World Bank and IFC on October 26 to build a local testing facility in Addis Ababa that will assess the quality of lighting products.
The MoU was signed by Alemayehu Tegenu, Minister of Water and Energy, and Ken Ohashi, director of the World Bank for Ethiopia and Sudan, during the third Lighting Africa workshop.
However, details will still need to be hammered out before this project proves successful. “The detailed process of the building of the facility and how it will be financed has not yet been determined,” senior energy specialist for sustainable development at the World Bank Raihan Elahi told Fortune. “Experiences in other countries have shown that such facilities usually cost between $50,000 and $200,000. Most of the financing is likely to come from the Rural Electrical Fund (REF).”
Currently, on about 41% of Ethiopia’s population has access to electricity, but Tegenu said that the country is aiming to increase that statistic to 100% by 2015.
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