Finland will allocate 114 million euros ($131.75 million) to Africa via the World Bank structures, and the funds will be used for African power generating capacity enhancement, the Finnish Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
HELSINKI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th October, 2018) Finland will allocate 114 million Euros ($131.75 million) to Africa via the World Bank structures, and the funds will be used for African power generating capacity enhancement, the Finnish Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The ministry noted that Finnish Foreign Trade and Development Minister Anne-Mari Virolainen would sign a related cooperation agreement at the annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which started on the Indonesian island of Bali on Monday and will last through Sunday.
The sum, due to be provided by Finland, will be poured into commercial climate and energy-related projects that will be launched in the developing African countries in the four years to come. Within the next 25 years, the funds with interests are supposed to be returned to Finland.
"Over one billion of people worldwide still do not have access to electricity. Access to electricity is a human rights issue in the developing countries, while the lack of energy is a hand break hindering the society development," Virolainen said, as quoted by the ministry.
Finland has already invested three million euros in a major project of the Morocco-headquartered energy company Gaia Energy. The project envisages the creation of 22 power plants, mostly wind power ones, in nine African countries � Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. As Gaia Energy needs several billions euros to implement the project, the World Bank has also invested its funds there, while private investments are required as well.
The projected wind power plants will expand the current African wind power capacity by around 50 percent.
The Finnish Foreign Ministry specified that Helsinki wanted to help raise private funds and thus promote the developing states' markets.
