WB agency aprroves $102M guarantee for Egypt's solar power

CAIRO – 11 January 2018: World Bank Group member, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), announced Thursday a guarantee of $102.6 million for the construction of six power plants in Egypt.

Coming as a first part of 12 solar projects approved by MIGA, the power plants will have a combined capacity of 250 megawatts under the government's feed-in-tariff (FiT) program, MIGA said in a statement.

The guarantees are being provided against the risks of expropriation, transfer restriction and inconvertibility, breach of contract, and war and civil disturbance, it stated.

“Significant investments are needed in Egypt to meet growing demand for power, and diversify the country’s energy mix,” MIGA Executive Vice President and CEO Keiko Honda said in the statement.

The Egyptian government is moving forward on a mega project that involves private sector companies building solar and wind plants under a FiT scheme.

The plan set by Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker eyes generating 20 percent of Egypt’s energy supply from renewable energy resources by 2022.

In October, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, completed a $653 million debt package to finance building 13 solar power plants near Aswan.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) also approved financing a total of 16 solar projects in Egypt at a total capacity of 750 megawatts with $500 million under the same scheme.