The World Bank has approved $150 million to boost Electricity Services in Senegal through the Energy Access Scale-Up Project.
The project will directly benefit over 1.5 million people by connecting 200,000 houses to the grid, including 40,000 vulnerable households who will be given standardised connection kits adapted to their needs.
In addition, new or improved electrical services will help around 700 micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, 200 schools, and 600 health facilities.
Senegal has one of the highest electrification rates on the continent at 78.6%, but this high electrification rate masks the profound disparities – across urban and rural areas, geographies, and income groups.
The Energy Access Scale-Up Project will help to reduce the disparities in electricity distribution and access. In Senegal, the 2017 Demographic and Health Surveys Programme (DHS) finds a clear link between poverty and lack of access to electricity.
The Senegal Energy Access Scale Up Project is an important component of the ongoing government goal to provide all Senegalese households, both in rural and urban regions, with affordable access to power by 2025.
By agreeing to ramp up its funding and being the key agency in support of the government’s shared vision, the bank had made a promise to the Senegalese government that it would be on his side in a universal access roundtable.
“This transformational and innovative project consolidates World Bank support to the Senegal ambition of reaching universal access to electricity by 2025, five years in advance to SDG7, making it one of the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to reach that objective.
“Together with the Regional Electricity Access and BEST Project, the Bank will provide almost $300 million funding for the Government’s Universal Access Program (UAP), around one-third of the remaining financing gap,” said Nathan Belete, World Bank Country Director for Senegal.
The resolve of the Senegalese government to achieve universal energy access would not only help the country’s economic recovery and job creation, but will also ensure that the recovery is framed in a more sustainable and resilient manner.
