$250 million World Bank loan
to finance three electricity projects

Loan may increase to $400 million

The World Bank has granted Lebanon a $250 million loan to alleviate persistent power cuts.

The government said it received preliminary approval to increase a World Bank reconstruction loan to $400 million from $250 million.
The loan is part of a $1 billion reconstruction program, with the remainder of the financing to come from international aid.

“This loan will be a powerful boost to the reform steps we’re undertaking in the electricity sector,” said Yassine Jaber, the Minister of Finance. “For years, we’ve been waiting to activate the regulatory authority and implement the long-stalled electricity law. Today, we are finally taking real steps toward fundamentally changing how this sector is managed.”

World Bank Regional Director Jean-Christophe Carret called the agreement a pivotal moment in the World Bank’s partnership with Lebanon, marking a transition from decades of technical and analytical assistance to tangible financial engagement in the power sector. “This is the first loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) to Lebanon’s electricity sector,” he noted.

The $250 million loan is intended to support a cleaner, more reliable, and efficient electricity service in Lebanon. Carret said that the initiative is anchored in political reforms committed to by the government, aimed at delivering quality services quickly and in a financially sustainable manner.

The project includes financing the construction of a new national control center for power management, upgrading the accounting, billing, and revenue collection systems of Électricité du Liban (EDL), and developing scalable solar farms, with the first phase expected to generate 150 megawatts and save an estimated $40 million annually in fuel costs.

Electrical power outages worsened by last year's war by Israel. Following the conflict the World Bank said it would need around $11 billion for reconstruction and recovery.