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A World Bank report reveals that approximately 70% of the nearly 600 million people without electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa live in rural, fragile, conflict-affected communities. The lack of clean, reliable electricity severely hampers development and economic growth in Africa, especially in Western, Central Africa, and Sahel countries such as the Central African Republic, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Niger, and Sierra Leone, where rural electrification rates are below 5%.
Improving electricity access for marginalized and disadvantaged groups in Africa is crucial and closely linked to achieving several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including SDGs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7. However, access to concessional financing is limited. The World Bank estimates that Africa will need about $200 billion annually to achieve universal electricity access by 2030, highlighting the need for innovative financing solutions.
To address this issue, the World Bank, Climate Technology Fund (CTF), and the Dutch government (DGIS) have jointly commissioned the Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project (ROGEAP). Implemented by the ECOWAS Commission and Banque Ouest Africaine Development (BOAD) and managed by a consortium including GOPA AFC and GOPA INTEC, ROGEAP targets 19 countries: the 12 ECOWAS member states plus 7 other countries namely, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Mauritania, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.
Since its official start in late 2023, ROGEAP has provided capacity building to over 500 solar SMEs, covering topics such as developing bankable business plans, product certification, access to finance, environmental social health and safety (ESHS), financial management, budgeting, forecasting, expenditure tracking, and record-keeping.
ROGEAP also offers grant funding to startups and growing solar companies to expand their operations in hard-to-reach off-grid communities. These grants help solar SMEs to test innovative business models like PAYGO, which allows marginalized people to own solar products without upfront costs. The grants also help solar SMEs mitigate initial losses when extending operations to challenging rural areas.
Despite the convenience and cost-effectiveness of off-grid solar products for rural communities, their retail prices and upfront costs are often too high for marginalized people. To address this, ROGEAP launched calls for proposals from eligible solar companies in 13 ROGEAP countries. A pilot call in six countries (Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mauritania) resulted in the disbursement of $3.7 million to 30 solar SMEs, who have since received additional support in solar product procurement, project management, and grant utilization.
These financial and technical supports aim to empower SMEs to gradually extend electricity access to unconnected rural areas in Africa.
For more information, please contact samuel.kojodarko [at] gopa.eu (sam)samuel.kojodarko [at] gopa.eu.