Friday
July 8
2022

Press Release: Governments and Donors Urged to Step up Support for Minigrids to Accelerate Universal Energy Access in Rural Areas in Africa

The Africa Minigrid Developers Association (AMDA) has today called for more support from governments and donors to the minigrid sector in Africa, which has shown strong resilience in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic but continues to face financial, policy, and regulatory constraints.

This follows the launch of the second edition of ‘Benchmarking Africa’s Minigrids report,’ a flagship report for AMDA, an industry association created by minigrid developers to boost the health of the sector and deliver on global renewable energy access objectives.

The report shows that the minigrid industry in Africa doubled the number of people it connected to modern and reliable electricity in the last two years amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, more than 500,000 people, healthcare facilities, schools and businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa are now accessing stable electricity thanks to minigrids.

However, the sector is struggling to scale up and realise its potential to accelerate access to clean and affordable energy, particularly in rural areas in a continent with nearly half its population, 600 million people, still lacking access to electricity.

Photo courtesy of Corrie Wingate Photography/SolarAid.

Source: Sun-Connect-News (link opens in a new window)

Tags
energy access, renewable energy