The fund was released to increase electricity in Africa’s most populous nation, the International Development Association disclosed, as Reuters reported on Friday.

The World Bank said that more than 85 million people lacked access to electricity in Nigeria as of 2021, with households and businesses reliant on expensive diesel and petrol generators.

It stated that the International Development Association will fund the Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) project, which will give more than 17.5 million Nigerians access to new or improved electricity supplies.

“To further address the access gap, DARES will build on the achievements of the World Bank-financed Nigeria Electrification Project, which has supported the establishment of 125 mini grids and the sale of over a million solar home systems, through which more than 5.5 million Nigerians have gained access to electricity,” the World Bank said.

It added that the project will leverage parallel financing of $100 million from the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet and $200 million from Japan’s International Cooperation Agency, in addition to over $1 billion of private capital.