President of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, unveiled an ambitious plan during the mid-term review of the International Development Association’s (IDA) $93 billion replenishment package.
Banga emphasized this initiative as an example of how funds from the bank’s International Development Association, offering zero- or low-interest loans to low-income countries, can make a significant impact.
He urged donor countries to provide support, highlighting the anticipation of 1.1 billion young people in the Global South reaching working age over the next decade.
What the president said:
“But how can we hope to make even adequate progress while 600 million people in Africa – 36 million of whom live here in Tanzania – still don’t have access to reliable electricity? Put simply: We can’t.”
Banga talked about the bank’s current assessment of the $93 billion IDA replenishment round. In the next round, which is set for December 2024, he said he hoped donors would break yet another record.
“We are pushing the limits of this important concessional resource and no amount of creative financial engineering will compensate for the fact that we need more funding,” he said.
After attending the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, Banga, the former CEO of Mastercard Inc., arrived in Zanzibar. During an interview in Dubai on Sunday, he shared his reflections on the experience.
“There is a lot of energy. There seems to be political alignment. I’m going to take all the tailwind I can get.”
A significant section of the populace struggles with unreliable electricity across the continent. Numerous factors, such as the high cost of electricity and insufficient infrastructure, contribute to the lack of accessibility to electricity in many regions.