The Organization for International Economic Relations (OiER) is pleased to announce that a grant by the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) amounting to US$ 800.000,00 has been approved. The official signing ceremony was held on 13 May 2015 at the OFID Headquarters in Vienna, where the grant agreement was signed by H.E. Mr. Suleiman AL-HERBISH, OFID Director General, and Kari Aina EIK, OiER Secretary General.
More than 1 billion people in the world lack access to electricity. In Africa 700 million people live in communities that are off-grid. Through this project 5.000 solar systems are installed in West Africa, specifically Ghana and The Ivory Coast. An estimated 30.000 people including women and children benefit from this programme, allowing children to study in the evening, increase safety and health for women and children, cut household spending, trigger economic development and increase local employment. It represents a multi-stakeholder projected initiated by OiER, in cooperation with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Energy Globe Foundation (EGF), which is aiming to contribute a significant share to the set Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
Although a significant part of the needed fund will be covered with the approved OFID grant, there are still possibilities for private sector stakeholders to join this one of a kind development project.
For further information, please see the Solar Light For All brochure for download (click below on the OiER logo) or please feel free to directly contact the OiER General secretariat via sg.office@oier.pro or +43/1/532 22 66