ASCENT Regional Energy Access Financing Platform 2 - Derisking Facilities (P513432)
World Bank Group
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Abstract: This Project Information Document outlines a regional energy access financing initiative for Eastern and Southern Africa, including Kenya, aimed at increasing access to sustainable and clean energy. The project addresses critical energy poverty affecting 375 million people in the region, with over 82 percent lacking access to clean cooking technologies and fuels. Traditional cooking fuels expose populations?particularly women and children?to severe health risks and contribute to land and forest degradation and climate change, resulting in an estimated annual cost of $169 billion to the region. The initiative employs a Maximizing Finance for Development approach with investment project financing totaling $345 million, combining IDA credit ($25 million), private sector equity ($122 million), commercial debt ($118 million), and trust fund contributions ($15 million) to support electrification and clean cooking access across the region's 22 beneficiary countries. The project seeks to accelerate progress toward universal electricity access by 2030 while mitigating climate and health impacts associated with energy poverty.