Liberia has received a $50-million endorsement from the Climate Investment Funds (CIF)  Scale up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries (SREP) programme to support its far-reaching renewable-energy investment plan, the African Development Bank (AfDB) announced on Tuesday.

The AfDB backed Liberia for this investment, which would be used to bolster the country’s intention of reaching a 35% electrification rate by 2030, as opposed to the current rate of 2%.

The country’s renewable-energy investment plan would help increase energy access through offgrid electricity schemes based on small hydro, solar photovoltaic, biomass and hybrid systems.

“We are very pleased to support Liberia as it takes this transformational step. Countries like Liberia face an enormous double-edged challenge of building badly needed access to energy, while at the same time applying the relevant climate-friendly solutions,” AfDB task manager for the preparation of the Liberia plan Florence Richard-Quintanilha said.

She added that the AfDB believed that Liberian citizens would benefit greatly from the plan.

“We hope that increasing access to affordable and safe energy in rural areas of the south-east will support greater development in this zone damaged by the civil war.  With this plan, the country stands ready to become an example for other fragile States in Africa trying to increase energy access and diversify their energy mix through renewables,” Richard-Quintanilha said.

The renewable-energy plan was designed to be carried out in two financing phases. In Phase 1, implementing partners would rely more on public investment to help mitigate the risks associated with country conditions, the lack of an enabling environment suitable for renewable-powered offgrid schemes, and new and/or untested business and technology models.

In Phase 2, the private sector would take the lead with development partners’ support to scale up the programme based on the results of Phase 1, the AfDB explained.

As a first step, the country would use a $1.5-million SREP project preparation grant to develop an AfDB-supported project entitled Renewable Energy for Electrification in Eastern Liberia.