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Rest of WorldNews > Freeplay wins at World Bank Development Marketplace 2006
Freeplay Energy plc is proud to announce its participation in a public-private partnership project that has won a significant grant from the World Bank Development Marketplace 2006. The five -member partnership, led by the Freeplay Foundation, includes Freeplay Energy plc, CARE Rwanda, Cornell University’s Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise and the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology.
The winning project proposal is based on Freeplay’s rural energy enterprise model, which is an initiative to set-up rural energy entrepreneurs in developing countries to sell energy services (cell phone recharging, lighting applications, etc) to their local communities using Freeplay’s state-of-the-art, foot-powered portable generator, the Weza. Entrepreneurs would purchase the Weza with a microfinance loan negotiated with a local microfinance institution.
The five-partner private/public international/local alliance will select, train and support 50 Weza ‘Pioneers’ to establish self-financing and sustainable Weza micro-enterprises in Rwanda. A microfinance facility will be arranged by CARE Rwanda through its affiliation with a prominent local microfinance institution.
The project identifies and addresses the vital need for rural electrification, a need that World Bank President, Paul Wolfowitz, staunchly supports. Speaking at the start of Energy Week 2006 in Washington, DC in March, Wolfowitz remarks:
“We share a responsibility together to ensure that the global community can meet the energy needs of the poor and at the same time reap the double dividend of robust growth and a healthy planet. The current forecasts are that in 30 years there will still be 1.4 billion people without electricity and there will be many businesses that lack sufficient and reliable energy services that could be providing jobs for the poor. That’s just not satisfactory. We have to do better.” (Find full speech here.)
With grant funding from the World Bank and the innovative collaboration of five international/local, private/NGO and public partners, the pilot project in Rwanda could conceivably become a stepping-stone toward economic, social and environmental ransformation for millions in sub-Saharan Africa.