After the two Bretton Woods entities, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), resolved to stop financing the development of coal-fired power plant projects globally, African Development Bank (ADB) is keen to render assistance to countries in Africa.
The ADB is committed to filling the funding void the IMF and World Bank have left in the development of fossil-fueled power generation plants.
In a press statement last year, the organisation’s president, Akinwumi Adesina, commented, “Africa must develop its energy sector with what it has. Endowed with many different energy sources – both renewable and conventional – Africa needs a balanced energy mix. This must include renewable and conventional sources of power.”
In 2013, the World Bank resolved to stop funding the development of coal-fired power stations, with exceptional cases of very poor countries that demonstrate that the exploration of renewable sources is not viable.
As the result of the policy, South African power utility, Eskom, could not access World Bank loans for its fossil-fuel fired generation plants. South Africa is ranked as a higher middle income country, thus does not qualify under the exceptional cases for “very poor countries.
However, inexplicably, the IMF and World Bank have also shunned funding projects in Kenya and Uganda, which are amongst the world’s poorest countries. Kenya could not secure funding for its clean-coal power generation project.
