The Lebanese government has signed a loan agreement worth $ 250 million with the World Bank dedicated to modernizing the dilapidated electricity sector, which has interrupted the country with tens of billions of decades, according to what the Ministry of Finance announced on Wednesday.
The signing on the sidelines of the participation of Finance Minister Yassin Jaber in the bank’s spring meetings and the International Monetary Fund, at a time when Lebanon, which faces an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, hoped since 2019, has hoped to support international institutions for reform steps and the reconstruction process after Israel’s war on the south of the country.
The Ministry of Finance stated-in a statement-that Jaber and the regional director at the World Bank Jean-Kristoff Carre signed a “loan of $ 250 million allocated to address the issue of electricity in Lebanon.”
“Great change”
“We are sure that this loan will be very useful in paying and supporting the reforms we are in the electricity sector in Lebanon,” the statement quoted Jaber as saying.
He added: “Today we are taking real steps towards making a major change in the way the country’s electricity sector is managed,” considering that this loan “will actually contribute to enabling us to move forward with the path of reform.”
The Ministry stated that the loan includes “financing the establishment of a new national control center, improving the accounting, billing and collection system in the Electricity of Lebanon, and the development of expandable solar energy farms.”
In October 2024, the World Bank announced its approval of the loan “to enhance renewable energy in Lebanon by restoring the electricity network services and supporting the continuation of the implementation of reforms.”
He considered that the electricity sector has always been “at the center of the economic and financial challenges facing Lebanon, as successive crises over the past years have led to a significant deterioration in the operational and financial feasibility of the sector.”
Aid package
The loan allocated to the electricity sector is part of a billion dollar aid package, which Lebanon hopes to obtain from the World Bank, according to the Minister of Finance.
A statement to the Ministry quoted Jaber as saying – Tuesday – that Beirut obtained “initial approval to raise the value of the loan submitted by the World Bank for Reconstruction from 250 million dollars to 400 million dollars.”
In addition to the signed electricity loan, Jaber drew attention to loans worth $ 256 million for water, 200 million for agriculture, and 200 million for social affairs.
The electricity sector has been one of the dilapidated sectors in Lebanon for decades, and the state has been incorporated with a debt estimated at more than 40 billion dollars in the post-civil war era (1975-1990). Successive governments were unable to find a fundamental majority of electricity due to corruption, infrastructure and successive political crises.
The international community required the authorities to implement urgent reforms in several vital sectors to obtain financial support.
