WB provides $155M for Bangladesh's rural electrification

An off-grid solution for Bangladesh.

This will be made possible with the World Bank's US$ 155 million assistance for Bangladesh's Second Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Development Project.

The project will help install around 550,000 solar home systems and provide electricity to an additional 2.5 million in remote villages that cannot be reached by the national grid.

Iqbal Mahmood, Bangladesh's Senior Secretary of Economic Relations Division, and Ellen Goldstein, WB Country Director in Bangladesh, signed two credit agreements in behalf of their groups.

These no-interest credits from the International Development Association have 40 years to maturity with a 10-year grace period and a service charge on disbursed funds of 0.75 percent.

The first RERED project helped install more than 1.5 million solar homes systems. Today, more than 50,000 solar home systems are installed every month in Bangladesh, making it the fastest growing solar home systems program in the world.

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