World Bank approves $ 151 million investment project to support energy sector in Tunisia

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors, on Monday, approved a new US$151 million project in support of Tunisia’s goal of diversifying its energy sources away from imported hydrocarbons and providing cleaner and less expensive electricity to Tunisian people and businesses, the WB said on Monday.

The new project will fund efforts by Tunisia’s national electricity and gas company (Société Tunisienne de l’Electricite et du Gaz – STEG) to strengthen the country’s electricity transmission system, integrate domestically produced renewable energy, and improve the commercial performance of the utility.

Tunisia will therefore be able to meet the ambition to build a greener energy sector.

The objective is also to contribute to improve the commercial performance of STEG and reduce its reliance on imported fossil fuel.

Consequently, this will contribute to enhancing energy security in the country, bring the electricity sector on a more sustainable financial footing and facilitate private investment in renewables.

“Overreliance on imported fossil fuels threatens Tunisia’s energy security and might negatively affect the macroeconomic situation,” said Tony Verheijen, World Bank Tunisia Country Manager.

He added: “this new project is a significant investment in support of transforming the energy sector into a more environmentally friendly, energetically efficient and economically sustainable one.”

“This will contribute to achieving 30% of electricity production from renewable energies by 2030,” he said.

On June 14, the World Bank Group approved two other investment projects totaling $ 175 million for Tunisia.

These two projects aim to support the digital sector, notably through the establishment of a new economy that encourages entrepreneurship and generates more jobs opportunities, and the improvement of the authorities’ capacity to respond to citizens’ needs through the digitization of essential public services.

TunisianMontorOnline (TAP)

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