Tanzania, Nov. 24 -- Nairobi. Twenty-one low-income countries have been earmarked as beneficiaries of the Africa Minigrids Programme.

Solar-powered mini-grids could be the key to connecting 265 million people across Africa to electricity by 2030.

Funded by the Global Environment Facility, the Africa Minigrids Programme will work with the United Nations Development Programme, African Development Bank, and national governments to install mini-grids powered by solar batteries in remote parts of the continent.

The programme has also launched a bid to attract US $65 billion in private capital that will speed up its extension beyond the first phase. Angola, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia are among the countries set to benefit from that first ph...