Flexible financing helps low-income households and communities afford electrical meters, boosting small businesses and families’ quality of life, write ALISON BUCKHOLTZ, BIROM SECK, and ABDOUL MAIGA.
SHORTLY after 10-year-old Aziz Kima finishes his math homework, he closes the book and turns to his mother with a smile. Although it’s evening, the room is brightly lit—in contrast to the days before the family’s electrical meter was installed. “Thanks to the electricity, he can review his lessons and do his exercises in the evening,” says his mother, Gisèle Kima, a seamstress. “It is more practical and less dangerous than studying by candlelight.” Her work has benefitted from the family’s hookup to the national grid, too: she can fulfill more orders and is less tired, she says, than when she had to pedal to power a manual sewing machine.
The Kima family’s connection will contribute to the more than 13 per cent increase in the nationwide electricity access rate over the next four years.
The Kima family lives in Anono, a low-income village on the outskirts of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Although government figures indicate that Côte d’Ivoire had 88 per cent electricity coverage in 2023—and the government estimates that nearly 94 per cent of the country had coverage in 2024— about 36 per cent of Ivoirians can’t afford to install the meter that allows them to access power. The Kimas used to be among them. At an average of XOF 150,000, or about US$250, cost was a barrier.
But support from the World Bank Group, including the International Development Association (IDA) and an investment from IFC, is helping a successful government initiative reach some of the country’s last people without power. IFC’s anchor investment of US$48.8 million in a US$97.6 million social bond raised money to fund the cost of installing the meters—part of a groundbreaking programme that offers access to electricity to the poorest, most vulnerable citizens.
Côte d’Ivoire’s programme, Electricity for All (known in French as Programme Electricité Pour Tous, or PEPT), offers flexible financing so people can afford the cost of installing the meters. It enabled the Kima family to pay just XOF 1,000 (about US$1.50) for the connection and to continue on a pay-as-you-go plan. The programme has facilitated access to power for over 2 million low-income Ivoirian households—double the number of connections since its launch in 2014.
The Kimas paid about US$1.50 for an electrical meter to be installed outside their home.
IFC’s investment is part of a three-decade World Bank Group effort to expand Côte d’Ivoire’s power supply and improve people’s quality of life. Together, the IDA and IFC efforts will help the government reach its goal of establishing over 800,000 additional connections over the next four years, a more than 13 per cent increase in the nationwide electricity access rate.
Côte d’Ivoire’s Electricity for All initiative advances the goals of Mission 300, a World Bank Group-African Development Bank Group partnership to provide at least 300 million people in Africa with clean and reliable electricity access by 2030. “Electricity powers education, healthcare, innovation, and jobs, and is key to Africa’s development,” says Managing Director, IFC Makhtar Diop. “As private sector investment reshapes the continent’s energy landscape, it opens new opportunities, bringing millions closer to the promise of reliable electricity.”
Before their home had access to electricity, seamstress Gisèle Kima pedaled a manual sewing machine and used an iron heated by charcoal.
Powering Progress: Côte d’Ivoire’s Journey to Universal Electricity Access: Côte d’Ivoire’s commitment to bringing electricity to the entire nation has resulted in access to power for millions. Support from the World Bank Group, including the International Development Association (IDA) and an investment from IFC, is helping the Electricity for All initiative achieve its goals.
“We have developed the means and resources to achieve universal access by 2030.”
“The energy hub of West Africa”
Powering up Côte d’Ivoire has long been a priority for its leaders. “We want to be the energy hub of West Africa,” says Managing Director of the Ivorian Electricity Company (CIE), which operates the public electricity service Ahmadou Bakayoko. Years of investment have yielded results: the country has become one of the leading electricity exporters in West Africa. And although Côte d’Ivoire’s rate of access far exceeds the Sub-Saharan Africa average of 50 percent, Bakayoko says he won’t be satisfied until access is enabled throughout the country.
There are some clear economic advantages to widespread electrification. Throughout Africa, expansion of the energy infrastructure facilitates economic growth, generates jobs, increases productivity, and reduces the cost of doing business, research shows.
In addition to those benefits, Bakayoko notes the critical ways electricity boosts people’s health and well-being: it keeps food and medicines at the optimal temperature, powers hospitals and health care facilities, enhances security, aids students’ work, and streamlines many of the housekeeping and cooking activities traditionally done by women.
“The human impact [of having electricity] is exceptional,” Bakayoko says. “Providing access to electricity represents the liberation of populations and the path to modernity.” He remembers hearing about a woman in a remote village who faced the prospect of marrying a neighbor just because his house had electricity. While considering the proposition, the Electricity for All programme came to her village and showed her how the cost barrier could be overcome. She soon received her own hookup—and remained single by choice.
For Alpha Barry, who owns several residential buildings in the village of Anono, access to electricity is simply good for business. Before individual meters were installed in late 2024, his buildings received electricity from the village’s shared meters. However, “I encountered many problems with tenants, such as unpaid electricity bills and meters that overheated because of too many users,” he says. “This is no longer the case today because each tenant has a meter [and] manages their consumption.” This means that if one of those tenants doesn’t pay their invoice, his business is no longer responsible for the charge just because he is the landlord.
Before a meter was installed last year at the bistro Julien Guibre manages, he also depended on public meter that served scores of other people. It was the only way to play music and keep food and drinks cold, but it was unreliable because of the high demand. Having his own meter has transformed the bistro because “People want to eat, drink, and dance,” he says. “Without electricity, I cannot work.” Guibre’s two brothers, also entrepreneurs, established businesses next to the bistro after electricity access became affordable.
With electricity that powers a freezer and lights, Julien Guibre’s bistro in the village of Akoué Santai can better serve customers’ needs.
Abdoul Karim Traoré remembers a time that electricity was rare or non-existent. Now, as a miller who shells and grinds corn, beans, millet, and cassava, he depends on electricity to run his grinder.
Niger-born Lawal Aboubacar opened his butcher shop about five months ago. It would be impossible to run the business without electricity, he says, because he relies on a freezer. “I re-stock once a week, and this system suits me because I have total control over my consumption.”
Noël Sawadogo opened his laundry in 2021, renting space from bistro owner Julien Gibre. Sawadogo has his own prepaid meter to access the electricity he needs.
Creative solutions to difficult challenges
The Electricity for All plan didn’t originally include businesses such as those of the three Guibre brothers. The story of the programme’s decade-long evolution is one of learning by doing—and responding quickly to customers’ feedback.
Early on, for example, operators had a mandate to connect homes to the network. But “in the very first village we went to launch the programme, there was a problem,” says CIE’s central director of general studies and strategic planning Léandre N’dri,. Electricity for All didn’t cover connections for schools, houses of worship, or community centers, and people argued that the program should include the local infrastructure.
“The programme was not intended for this…[but] we had to think about making it truly inclusive, ensuring that everyone’s needs are met,” N’dri recalls. “So we added these components. Then people voiced their other needs, such as electricity that would allow them to open a boutique, a hairdressing salon, a food shop or dress shop.” Integrating these requests for income-generating activities changed the program “360 degrees,” he says.
The Electricity for All programme now offers businesses, schools, community centers, and houses of worship the same turn-key solution it provides homes: a connection to a prepaid meter and internal wiring, LED lights and sockets, and certification for compliance with safety standards. The program funds the balance of the cost through flexible financing to the customer, which can be repaid over a period of two to 10 years. Customers’ pay-as-you-go plan includes an additional charge per kilowatt hour as electricity is purchased via the prepaid meters.
Customers’ request for CIE to install meters even more widely than originally planned guided the growth of the Electricity for All programme.
Greater access to electricity has resulted in a reduction in theft for Côte d’Ivoire’s national utility. According to CIE, implementation of the programme was a contributing factor to an improvement in efficiency: distribution efficiency grew from 82.43 per cent at the programme’s launch to 89.12 per cent at the end of 2021.
The commitment to nationwide access to electricity by 2030 created a problem-solving mind-set, says Director-General of Energy at Côte d’Ivoire’s Ministry of Mines, Oil and Energy, which oversees the implementation of the Electricity for All programme Kalifa Ehouman Narcisse. It wasn’t easy [because] it’s an ambitious program that doesn’t exist anywhere else, he says. “But we have developed the means and resources to achieve universal access by 2030.”
One of the greatest complexities arose from the need to coordinate with multiple agencies. There were several “links in the chain” necessary to deliver electrical hookups to last-mile customers, says N’dri. Electricity for All officials worked with other large-scale government initiatives that are expanding and digitalizing the power grid, such as the National Rural Electrification Programme (PRONER) and the National Program for Grid Expansion (PRONEX). Coordination also required input from regulators, electricians, and transportation specialists who in some cases had to construct roads to the areas being serviced by the program.
“Hooking up is simple, but it’s still a complex activity,” N’dri says. “An entire logistics chain must function for all of this to happen. Electricity for All is not an isolated project. It is part of an ecosystem.”
