The Development Bank of Ethiopia is making available 20 million US dollars from funds acquired from the World Bank for private businesses focusing on renewable energy and energy efficient goods.

The money to be made available is part of the 200 million US dollar loan the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development received from the World Bank last May. The loan was acquired to finance projects in the energy with electricity transmission and distribution getting the lion’s share of the allotment.

The 20 million US dollars made available at this is half of the 40 million US dollars allotted to enhance and encourage private sector investment in renewable energy. The other half will be released on the basis of how well the private sector is able to utilize the 20 million to be disbursed now according to sources. It is to be remembered that financing like used to be facilitated by the Ministry of Water and Energy before the World Bank reached an agreement MoFED.

The World Bank approved the Development Bank for this project because of its experience in  financing renewable energy projects for the MoWE explained Eyob Aguma, assistant project coordinator of the Rural Electrification Managed Fund, at the DBE.

It is expected that the DBE will start disbursing loans over the next five months after holding discussions with local stake holders and representative of the World Bank to discuss various factors including interest rates.

Source: Fortune