The World Bank board of directors has approved $425 million in financing to support the provision of infrastructure finance in Eastern and Southern Africa.
The Regional Infrastructure Financing Facility project (RIFF) aims to expand long-term finance to private firms in selected infrastructure in the power sector, as well as in the transport, logistics and social sectors. This is the first regional facility of this kind in Africa.
Eastern and Southern Africa suffers from ailing infrastructure, especially in the power sector. Effective power generation in the region is less than the installed capacity by 20–30 percent due to drought, lack of maintenance, and general system losses of electricity in both transmission and distribution. Such deficits cause about 2 percent loss of GDP growth in most of the countries, impeding a large number of the region’s population from access to energy. Heavy public financing of infrastructure contributes to rising debt vulnerabilitie
