World Bank backs energy programme

The World Bank is providing Mali with close to US $40 million in an effort to improve access to energy sources for the population, the Bank reported on Tuesday. The Bank approved an International Development Association (IDA) credit of $35.6 million and a Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Trust Fund of $3.5 million for the Malian government. The funds are to be channeled through a Household Energy and Universal Access Project (HEURA). HEURA aims to accelerate the use of modern energy services in rural and peri-urban areas of the country, improving health and education centres and increasing the productivity of small and medium enterprises. The project also looks to strengthen energy sector reform, offering incentives for greater private investment. Mali has a low level of electrification, with less than 10 percent of the population having access to electricity. The country’s energy sector is mostly based on traditional fuels. There is a heavy, unsustainable reliance on the use of fuel-wood, leading to soil erosion and desertification. The HEURA project aims to scale down community-based woodland management so as to reduce pressure on forest resources, while also encouraging interfuel substitution and energy efficiency initiatives. Both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have strongly backed Mali’s efforts to reduce poverty and provide better services to the population. The Bank says Mali has achieved a growth rate of around five percent a year since 1994. Recent energy policy has highlighted the need to provide energy at affordable prices and to open the energy sector to private capital and competition.