An estimated five million households will be connected to electricity under a Sh114 billion ($880 million) World Bank-backed project that mainly seeks to light up rural Kenya.
The project, dubbed Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Transformation (ASCENT-Kenya), is funded by the World Bank and other financiers and marks Kenya’s latest efforts to achieve universal electricity coverage by 2030.
ASCENT-Kenya will also see 7,500 public education institutions and 2,500 public health facilities linked to electricity, which will significantly boost their service delivery.
Kenya’s electricity coverage stood at 74 percent in 2024, and disclosures from the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum show that 13 million, mostly in semi-arid and remote regions, still lack reliable power, a gap that ASCENT-Kenya seeks to plug.
The project will involve solarisation of existing diesel-powered mini-grids, building new mini-grids, subsidisation of clean-cooking appliances to bolster uptake, and setting up battery storage for renewable energy.
‘Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Transformation (ASCENT-Kenya) will aim at assisting Kenya in achieving universal electricity access ahead of 2030 and significantly scale up access to clean cooking technologies and fuels,’ the ministry notes in disclosures.
‘More than 13 million people, mostly in arid and semi-arid and remote regions, still lack reliable power, and the pace of new connections has slowed. Achieving universal access by the year 2030 will therefore depend on scaling Distributed Renewable Energy solutions, alongside continued grid expansion.’
The new connections are expected to open up new economic fortunes, improve the quality of life and boost Kenya Power’s electricity sales and earnings.
International Development Association (IDA), the arm of the World Bank tasked with helping low-income countries to expand universal energy access via concessional loans and grants, will provide $450 million (Sh58.23 billion) or slightly more than half of the $880 million for the project.
Co-financiers will top up the remaining $430 million, helping Kenya to move closer to its ambitious plan of lighting up more homes and public institutions in the areas outside the national grid.
Kenya had targeted to achieve universal energy access by 2030, but a slowdown in new connections and reduced funding from the Treasury have hit the ambitions.
There are currently over 10.2 million customers connected to Kenya Power, and this number is set to increase significantly through ASCENT-Kenya.
Last Mile Connectivity project and the Kenya Off-Grid Solar Access Project (KOSAP), which are heavily funded by the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB), have been the key drivers of new connections in the last few years.
Customers within 600 metres of the marked transformers automatically qualify for Last Mile Connectivity, where they pay a subsidised fee of Sh15,000 while KOSAP links customers to mini-grids that are either solar or diesel-powered.
Under Last Mile Connectivity, 50 percent of every purchased token by a beneficiary goes towards paying the Sh15,000 loan.
The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum estimates that some $1 billion (Sh129.4 billion) is needed to achieve universal electricity access in Kenya, highlighting the funding gap that has forced the country to rely on development partners like the World Bank and AfDB.