The Nigeria Energy Access Fund (NEAF) has received a major contribution to providing more electricity to Nigerians: a $ 500,000 grant from the African Development Bank. The bank’s support for NEAF is in line with the “New Energy Agreement for Africa”, a Bank initiative in partnership with governments and private companies to develop a financing platform for the African energy sector. The AfDB initiative aims to ensure universal access to energy in Africa by 2025.
“Nigeria requires innovative and market-based customized solutions to provide its estimated 100 million off-grid population with access to sustainable sources of energy. The grant will be instrumental in building the NEAF and ultimately mobilizing much-needed private sector investment in the sector, ”said Wale Shonibare, ADB’s acting Vice-President for Power, Energy, Climate Change, and Green Growth.
Once in operation, NEAF is expected to complement the Bank’s other sustainable energy initiatives currently being implemented in Nigeria. In November 2018, the Bank’s Board of Directors approved a $ 200 million package to support the Nigerian Electrification Project (NEP), designed to help expand green subsidized mini-grid solutions, among other measures. In May 2018, SEFA approved a $ 1.5 million grant to support the first phase of the Nigerian government’s Jigawa 1-GW Independent Producer Solar Procurement Program.