IFC to Upgrade Water Facilities in Nigeria, Others

• IFC to Upgrade Water Facilities in Nigeria, Others

International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, has partnered the Rockefeller’s 100 Resilient Cities and the Global Innovation Fund to improve water facilities in Africa.

The IFC said in a statement that its partnership with other organisations would create an innovation platform to introduce sustainable solutions and drive efficiencies in the African water sector.

The corporation said it would support a second workshop as part of the Water Innovation Platform for Africa, designed to help water utilities in sub-Saharan Africa meet the Sustainable Development Goals with a focus on clean water and improved sanitation.

The statement read in part, “WIPA introduced well-tested new technologies into the African water sector to support local water utilities in implementing these solutions. The workshop, which was run by Isle Utilities in partnership with the African Water Association, brought together representatives from regional water utilities and the World Bank Group.

“WIPA aims to enable African utilities to engage with new and resilient technologies and processes that have been proved and adopted elsewhere, but are also suited to African local market conditions. The platform helps identify solutions in the African water sector that improve service, increase efficiency, reduce cost and help mitigate climate change impact.”

The Water Specialist, IFC, George Butler, reiterated the IFC’s commitment to finding solutions to difficult problems in emerging markets.

He noted that the IFC encouraged collaboration between water utilities and technology providers to deploy innovations that improve water and sanitation services for customers.

According to him, a rigorous due diligence process is used to screen new technologies so only the best solutions are showcased at these WIPA workshops.

The Chief Executive Officer, GIF, Alix Zwane, said, “GIF is pleased to support such initiative alongside the IFC and Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities. Finding and scaling innovative approaches to clean water and sanitation is critical to achieving the SDGs and one that GIF is focused on supporting.”