World Bank aiming to connect 250 mn Africans to energy grid by 2030 [Video]

The World Bank has significantly scaled up its ambition to connect Africans to the electricity grid by 2030, from 100 million to more than 250 million, the Bank’s president said Wednesday.

The development lender has estimated that around 600 million people in Africa do not currently have access to affordable, reliable electricity — a key factor hampering job creation and economic development on the African continent.

“Back in COP28, the World Bank made a commitment to connect 100 million Africans to affordable energy by 2030,” World Bank president Ajay Banga told an event at the Bank’s headquarters in Washington.

“We’re going to multiply that commitment to 250 million people out of that 600,” he added.

To connect this many people to the energy grid by 2030, $30 billion of …