The World Bank
As a consultant to the World Bank’s Energy and Extractives Unit, DG+Design’s founder, David Ganske, developed a financial model to estimate embedded fuel subsidies across 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
HIGHLIGHTS
The World Bank Group is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. Its five institutions share a commitment to reducing poverty, increasing shared prosperity, and promoting sustainable development.
THE CHALLENGE
The World Bank is committed to helping countries implement economically smart and tailored approaches that best suit their needs, and supports technological, financial, and policy innovations that can help accelerate the expansion of reliable and affordable electricity services and end energy poverty.
To that end, the World Bank has a long track record of supporting the expansion of energy access — both on- and off-grid, and rural and urban electrification. The World Bank is also actively mobilizing private sector investment in energy access projects — particularly mini-grid and off-grid initiatives — by helping to put in place enabling policies, demonstrating viable business models, and providing seed funding that can be used to leverage commercial financing
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, millions of households remain unable to afford connection fees or tariffs, and utilities struggle to recover even their operational costs — creating large funding gaps that threaten both access and reliability. The World Bank wanted to better understand the financial sustainability of utilities in the region and identify opportunities to make power more affordable and viable.
SOLUTION
As a consultant to the World Bank’s Energy and Extractives Unit, DG+Design's founder, David Ganske, developed a financial model to estimate embedded fuel subsidies across 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa by comparing available data to estimated levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for a report that is now available at the link below.
This work also included the creation of the first World Bank database of utility financial data for electricity suppliers across Sub-Saharan Africa. This database achieved its goal of providing a full breakdown of costs and revenues from 2009 to the present.
