The board of directors African Development Fund of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a $27.39 million grant to Ghana towards the country’s investment in developing renewable energy.
This was announced by AfDB’s Director-General for West Africa Marie-Laure Akin Olugbade who declared the bank’s alignment with Ghana’s development priorities in the area of renewable energy resources, especially in the COVID19 era that shows the importance of reliable energy services.
According to the AfDB Country Manager, Eyerusalem Fasika, this grant will go a long way in helping Ghana realise its goal of providing infrastructure for Ghanaians to create prosperity.
“The project will support Ghana’s Covid-19 Alleviation and Revitalization of Enterprises Support (Ghana CARES) programme, which identifies the energy sector as an enabler of economic transformation. It has the potential to create jobs, fundamentally expand access to businesses and bring prosperity to Ghanaians.”
The Ghana Mini-Grid and Solar Photovoltaic Net Metering Project involves the development of 35 mini-grids, solar photovoltaic systems in four hundred schools, two hundred healthcare centres and hundred community energy services centres in the Volta Lake region. When completed, it is expected to have an annual capacity of one hundred and ten megawatts. These include 12,000 units of roof-mounted net-metered solar photovoltaic systems for public institutions, small and medium-sized enterprises and selected households.
Eyerusalem Fasika, the African Development Bank’s Country Manager for Ghana, said: “The project will support Ghana’s Covid-19 Alleviation and Revitalization of Enterprises Support (Ghana CARES) programme, which identifies the energy sector as an enabler of economic transformation. It has the potential to create jobs, fundamentally expand access to businesses and bring prosperity to Ghanaians.”
The project has leveraged co-financing from the Scaling Up Renewable Energy Program, a funding window of the Climate Investment Funds, and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, amounting to $28.49 million and $13.30 million, respectively.