World Bank Project to Help Light Up Sub-Saharan Africa

Power to the people. This is the objective of a new initiative to provide modern lighting to the 250 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who have no access to electricity.

Jointly managed by the bank and its private sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Lighting Africa aims to develop market conditions for the supply and distribution of new, non-fossil fuel lighting products such as fluorescent light bulbs and light emitting diodes in rural and urban areas that are not connected to the electricity grid.
The “energy poor” in Africa spend about $17 billion a year on fuel-based lighting sources such as kerosene lamps that are costly, inefficient, and provide poor quality light while causing pollution and posing fire hazards.

For these consumers, lighting accounts for 10 to 15 per cent of total household income. They offer a potentially huge market for modern lighting products that are safe and reliable, that provide higher-quality light, and that are cost-competitive with fuel-based lamps and powered by renewable energy or mechanical sources.

Lighting Africa, which is supported by a number of donors, including seed money from the Global Environment Facility, seeks to attract the international lighting industry, as well as local suppliers and service providers, to this market.

IFC executive vice president Lars Thunell said, “In partnership with the private sector, IFC will help develop sustainable business models to supply good quality lighting to the poorest of the poor in Africa. Our goal is to give families and small business owners clean, modern and affordable alternatives to fossil fuel lamps.”

AllAfrica