By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The US Agency for International Development (USAid) on Wednesday announced a grant of $88.9 million to East and central African, aimed at stepping up investment in renewable energy and closing gap of access to electricity in the next five years.
The fund is expected to be directly deployed to supporting the creation of about 10 million on- and off-grid electricity connections, which will grant access to clean energy to at least 50 million people.
Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the African Energy Forum in Nairobi on Wednesday, USAid administrator Samantha Power said that the Power Africa programme has proven that “clean energy investment delivers meaningful returns.”
She said the new grant would be used as leverage to help mobilise more investments in the region’s clean energy projects.
Additionally, the American embassy in Nairobi also said the US would mobilise new public and private investments of up to $4.7 billion in the region’s renewable energy projects through its ‘Power Africa’ programme.
The investment is projected to deliver up to 1,227 megawatts of electricity and develop about 1,500 kilometres of new transmission lines, connecting more households and businesses to the grid.
The US embassy did not disclose projects in the region that would benefit from the grant.
Ms Power however hinted that they’ll be working with Jomo Kenyatta University in Kenya “to find and invest in smaller solar powered systems that can be transformative for small and medium-sized businesses”.
