The Green Climate Fund approves €100 million to finance renewable energy in West Africa

With financial backing from the Green Climate Fun (GCF), the West-African Development Bank (BOAD) had approved a €100 million loan to finance renewable energy development in countries from West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). The goal of the GCF is to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries and help adapt vulnerable societies to the already-felt impacts of climate change.

The rationale of the proposed program “BOAD Climate Finance Facility to Scale up Solar Energy Investments in Francophone West Africa LDCs” is to decarbonise the energy mix of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) of the Francophone West Africa Region and to improve access to clean energy by scaling up cost-competitive solar technologies through private capital leveraging.

The program also aims to accelerate private sector investments in the medium/large scale on grid-connected solar sector and to create a market for investments in solar technologies (PV and CSP) in Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger and Togo.

The project features two main objectives with interrelated components including the scaling up of commercial and sustainable financing for solar investments through senior debt and standby loans and developing technical capacity of private and public sector actors and raise awareness about the benefits of solar technologies.