World Bank to provide electricity to 100m Africans with $5bn

World Bank Group has set aside the sum of $5 billion to provide electricity to about 100 million Africans by year 2030. The multilateral financial institution President Ajay Baanga said in Zanzibar, Tanzania, during the mid-term review of the International Development Association (IDA)’s $93 billion replenishment package. He said this was part of his plans to wield funds from the bank’s IDA to provide zero or low-interest loans to low-income countries.

Banga called on World Bank shareholders, donor countries and philanthropies to increase their funding to help IDA deliver better development outcomes to low-income countries. “The truth is we are pushing the limits of this important concessional resource and no amount of creative financial engineering will compensate for the fact that we need more.’’ nHe also said the World Bank needed to re-evaluate its performance to focus on improved outcomes, not numbers of projects or dollars disbursed. Reuters