The Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa (BGFA) is engaging in a new electrification project in Liberia. This is the aim of an agreement recently signed with Easy Solar. The Freetown, Sierra Leone-based solar home systems provider will leverage BGFA funding to supply at least 9,000 solar home systems to households in Liberia.
Its equipment will be able to provide mobile phone charging, radio, television and fans. The contract also includes the provision of water pumping solutions and freezers for productive use of electricity. In rural Liberia, Easy Solar distributes its equipment through a pay-as-you-go model, which is quite common in the solar home systems segment in sub-Saharan Africa.
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To date, the AFMO has already signed four contracts for electrification in Liberia. These partnerships are expected to provide access to electricity for 94,000 households in rural and peri-urban areas in Liberia. “With the support of the BGFA, we will be able to expand our business and deepen our expansion in Liberia, providing access to clean energy and other life-enhancing goods to thousands of people living in off-grid communities,” said Alexandre Tourre, Easy Solar’s CEO and co-founder.
For the record, the AFMO is a multi-donor financing mechanism managed by the Nordic Environmental Finance Corporation (NEFCO). The AFMO has been implementing a $107 million programme since 2019 to support access to electricity via renewable sources in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to Liberia, the AFMO programme is deployed in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia.
Jean Marie Takouleu