BENIN – Social impact investor Oikocredit is providing long-term project financing to Weziza Benin, an off-grid distributed energy enterprise, to connect 40,000 people in rural Benin to solar electricity.
With the funding, Weziza Benin will provide 21 rural communities with clean, affordable, and reliable electricity generated through renewable energy systems designed as solar photo voltaic-powered mini-grids.
The project has been selected in a competitive process by the Government of Benin and the Millennium Challenge Association Benin II to electrify households via solar power by June 2022.
The project is also supported by funding from the Millennium Challenge Account–Benin II and Agence Béninoise d’Electrification Rurale et de Maîtrise d’Energie, with a grant for each community connected.
Weziza Benin is part of the Energicity group of companies that, since its inception in 2015, has been a global energy transition pioneer offering solar solutions to clients in emerging markets around the world.
Energicity has installed and commissioned 44 projects to date with a total capacity of 1.45 megawatts, serving more than 47 communities.
The group of companies has further 37 installations with a capacity of over two megawatts under development.
“We at Weziza Benin are thrilled by our new partnership with Oikocredit. Oikocredit’s commitment to the sustainable eradication of energy poverty and the empowerment of low-income people and communities aligns perfectly with our goals,” said Nicole Poindexter, CEO, of Weziza Benin.
The project aims to improve the energy sector in the West African country which is largely dominated by the use of biomass-based energy sources (59.4%), followed by petroleum products (38.4%), and, to a lesser degree, electricity (2.2%).
The country solely depends on imports to satisfy its petroleum product demand, while 85% of its electricity consumption is answered by imports from Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, and Nigeria.
Households account for 48% of the country’s total electricity consumption followed by the institutional sector and the industrial sector, which accounts for 32% and 24% respectively.
Although in the five past years the final total energy consumption has perceptibly increased, the structure of final energy consumption has not changed.
The country is 100% dependent on petroleum imports, making it vulnerable to dollar exchange rates and fluctuations in oil prices.
Moreover, fluctuations in fossil fuel prices compromise Benin’s domestic capacity to develop its energy services.
More effort should be put by both the government and private sectors to utilize the huge and untapped renewable energy potential that the country possesses.
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