Tunisia to benefit from AfDB program to promote investment in decentralized renewable energy

Tunisia will benefit from the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) Leveraging Energy Access Finance Framework (LEAF) program to promote investment in decentralized renewable energy backed by the Green Climate Fund.
With a commitment of $164 million, the Abidjan-based bank will help scale up decentralized renewable energy (solar home systems, green mini-grids, and solar solutions for commercial and industrial use) to achieving the SDG7 objectives and requires significant private sector and local currency financing.
“Many African countries still face challenges in achieving universal access to sustainable, clean, affordable and reliable electricity. According to the latest Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 tracking report, close to 600 million Africans lack access to electricity. As a result of the Covid-19 crisis, the number of people without access to electricity increased again for the first time in recent years,” the bank said in a statement.
Ghana, Guinea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria will also benefit from the program.
LEAF, endowed with $800 million in budget, is expected to help spur commercial and local currency investments to scale up the activities of decentralized renewable energy companies.
Under LEAF Some 18 decentralized renewable energy projects are expected to be financed, providing access to six million people and businesses, resulting in 28.8 million tons CO2 eq. in greenhouse gas emission reductions over the lifetime of the systems, AfDB notes.