NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Nine low-income African countries have been chosen to receive funding to transform their renewable energy services at the semi-annual Climate Investment Funds (CIF) governing body meeting, held last week in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Funding and operational support will be granted to Benin, Ghana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia, boosting the number of African countries piloting the CIF climate-smart investment scheme to 25.

The CIF has five implementing agencies, one of which – the African Development Bank (AfDB) – is set to work directly with the countries to gain support and act as an implementing agency while the nine African countries develop their new CIF investment plans.

“This move sends an impressive signal for change,” said Erastus Wahome, Kenyan representative and co-chair of the CIF’s Scaling Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries Program (SREP). “The additional donor support for energy transformation is a clear sign of confidence in the success we’ve already seen taking place in low-income countries in Africa and other regions, and a sign of developing countries’ continuing enthusiasm to commit to CIF-style transformation. I am proud that Kenya has helped lead the way for this transformation.”