The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund (ADF), the concessional financing window of the African Development Bank Group, recently approved a donation of US$ 28.9M in favor of the implementation of the first phase of the Energy Access Project in Burundi.
Inclusive of funding of US$ 12.01M and Transition Support Facility of US$ 16.55M, the Bank’s support for the Burundi Energy Access Project is in line with the priorities defined in the East African Country Strategy Paper and in the Burundi National Development Plan.
According to Daniel Ndoye, country manager of the African Development Bank in Burundi the support, “incorporates the lessons learned by the Bank in the implementation of six other ongoing projects in the energy sector in order to obtain an optimal and sustainable investment for the country.”
Beneficiaries of the Energy Access Project in Burundi
The project is expected to help develop access to modern and clean energy services by connecting approximately 40,000 Burundian households to the electricity grid. It will also provide opportunities for 450 businesses, 200 educational institutions, and eight health centers to benefit from electricity. Approximately 40 markets and 150 places of worship will also have the opportunity to connect to the national electricity grid owing to the Energy Access Project in Burundi.
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In total, 36 localities spread over eleven provinces of the East African country will be covered by the project, which will achieve more than 26,000 new connections to the network as well as a reinforcement of 60 transformer stations currently overloaded in order to reduce energy losses and undistributed energy, thus enhancing the reliability of the power supply.
