Mali: US$5M Grant Agreement to Extend Electricity to 130,000 Low-income Rural Beneficiaries

GPOBA has agreed to provide a US$5.0 million grant to co-finance Mali's Rural Electrification Hybrid System Project, which aims to expand rural access to modern energy services and to increase renewable generation in target areas.. Two other financial supporters of this project are the International Development Association (IDA, US$25.0 million) and the Climate Investment Funds / Scaling Up Renewable Energy Program in Low-Income Countries (SREP, US$15.0 million). 

The GPOBA grant will partially subsidize the cost of densification and extension of electricity mini-grids, solar home systems (SHS) and household internal wiring for approximately 12,000 low-income households (about 130,000 beneficiaries) in isolated rural areas. It also promotes energy efficiency through the distribution of free compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) to make the electricity bills more affordable to the poor. GPOBAs funding builds on the positive momentum created by the hybridization of the mini-grids with solar energy under IDA-SREP funding to improve access of the poor people in rural areas to clean energy.

Mali’s Agency for Development of Rural Electricity (AMADER) will manage the grant and select private operators that will implement the project. Additional private funding for access scale up will be facilitated by the use of OBA, optimizing the benefits of this innovative rural renewable energy generation system employing the hybridization of mini-grids with solar energy. OBA will make off-grid connections to electricity more affordable to the poor who otherwise would not be receiving improved access to energy sources, and will enhance to performance of private operators selected by AMADER since the subsidy will be reimbursed based on the verification of functional off-grid connections.
 
”This is an opportunity for GPOBA to support a project with a renewable energy component as well as using OBA to fill in an investment gap in what is a fragile and conflicted-affected situation,” stated GPOBA Manager Carmen Nonay, adding that, “GPOBA’s goal is to be a pioneer and to show to investors the feasibility of projects even in this context, and we anticipate that providing rural communities with this vital lifeline -- access to electricity -- can foster increased economic prosperity, social cohesion and political stability.”
 
Press Releases below in English and French.