Guinea: AfDB supports rural electrification with over €760,000
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has just awarded a grant of nearly €762,000 to Guinea. The amount, granted through the AfDB Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), will support the Guinean Rural Electrification Agency sett up solar off-grid projects for the country’s villages.
According to the bank, funds will be used, among others, to finance technical, economic, financial, technical pre-feasibility and environmental and social impact studies for off-grid solar projects in the West African nation.
The projects identified in the “Least-Cost Electrification Plan” developed by the Government of Guinea in 2016, in coordination with the World Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD) comprise 57 off-grid solar systems in Guinean villages.
The systems will benefit around 30,000 households and some 100 micro and small businesses in the country. About 100 jobs will be created to deploy these systems.
In rural Guinea, only 7% of the population have access to electricity, compared to 34% at the national level.
Last year, the World Bank has approved about $50 million International Development Association (IDA) financing for the country’s Electricity Access Scale up Project to help increase access to electricity in selected areas of the country.
The project will finance the rehabilitation, densification and expansion of distribution networks in the areas of the Greater Conakry and secondary cities of Kindia and Forécariah, and enable 90,000 new or improved electricity connections, benefiting more than 600,000 Guineans.
