BURUNDI – The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund approved, on September 17, a donation of US$ 28.9 million to Burundi to carry out the first phase of its Energy Access Project.
The African Development Fund, the Bank Group’s concessional window, will provide funding of US$12.01 million and the Transition Support Facility, a Bank fund intended for countries in transition, US$16.55 million.
“The Bank’s support for the Burundi Energy Access Project is in line with the priorities defined in the Country Strategy Paper and in the Burundi National Development Plan,” said Daniel Ndoye, country manager of the African Development Bank in Burundi.
“It incorporates the lessons learned by the Bank in the implementation of six other ongoing projects in the energy sector in order to obtain an optimal and sustainable investment for the country.”
The Bank’s grant will help develop access to modern and clean energy services by connecting approximately 40,000 Burundian households to the electricity grid.
The project will also provide opportunities for 450 businesses, 200 educational institutions and eight health centres to benefit from electricity.
About 40 markets and 150 places of worship will also have the opportunity to connect to the national electricity grid.
In total, 36 localities spread over eleven provinces of Burundi will be covered by the project, which will achieve more than 26,000 new connections to the network as well as a reinforcement of 60 transformer stations currently overloaded in order to reduce energy losses and undistributed energy, thus enhancing the reliability of the power supply.
The implementation of the Access to Energy Project will make it possible to reinforce the safety of the populations thanks to public lighting and will also stimulate the development of income-generating activities thanks to the availability of electric energy.
Some 150 direct jobs, 20% of which will be reserved for women, will be created during the implementation phase of the project.
The project is part of the strategy of the New Pact for Energy in Africa promoted by the African Development Bank Group, which aims for universal access to energy for the populations of the African continent.
The project is aligned with two of the Bank’s five operational priorities, the “High 5s”: “light up Africa and supply it with energy” and “improve the quality of life of people in Africa” and it is also aligned with the Bank’s Action Plan on Climate Change due to the use of energy, nearly 77% of which is of renewable origin.
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