The OPEC Fund for International Development has approved two concessional loans worth a combined $31 million to strengthen Chad’s energy and agricultural resilience, marking a renewed effort to tackle twin crises of energy poverty and food insecurity in one of Africa’s most climate-vulnerable nations.
The first loan, valued at $15 million, will support the Energy Sector Support Project aimed at expanding access to clean, affordable power, while a second loan of $16 million will finance the Rice Farming Development Project in the Chari-Logone III region to improve domestic food production and reduce import dependence.
OPEC Fund President Abdulhamid Alkhalifa said the interventions address two of Chad’s most pressing challenges, reliable energy supply and food security, both of which remain essential for economic stability and sustainable development. The financing aligns with the Fund’s Climate Action and Food Security Action Plans, designed to promote renewable energy and climate-resilient agriculture across developing countries.
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Chad’s need for such interventions is acute. Despite being an oil-producing nation, the country has one of the lowest electricity access rates in the world. According to the World Bank’s Global Electrification Database, only around 11 per cent of Chad’s population had access to electricity as of 2023, with rural coverage below 2 per cent. Most households rely on biomass for cooking and lighting, exposing communities to severe indoor air pollution and deforestation pressures.
The $15 million loan under the Energy Sector Support Project aims to change this trajectory by financing solar mini-grids, expanding rural electrification and supporting the development of renewable energy infrastructure that can deliver reliable, off-grid solutions to remote areas.
Energy poverty in Chad is not just a domestic issue but a regional concern. Across Central and West Africa, an estimated 190 million people remain without electricity. Yet the Sahel region possesses some of the world’s highest solar irradiation levels, between 5.5 and 7.0 kWh per square meter per day, giving countries like Chad the potential to leapfrog fossil-fuel dependency through decentralized renewable systems. By supporting rural mini-grids and energy access programmes, the OPEC Fund’s investment could therefore catalyse broader regional momentum toward low-carbon electrification.
The second component of the financing, a $16 million loan for rice farming development in the Chari-Logone III region, reflects the equally urgent challenge of food insecurity. Chad’s economy is heavily dependent on agriculture, which employs nearly 80 per cent of its population but remains highly vulnerable to erratic rainfall and drought.
The Lake Chad basin, once a cornerstone of regional food production, has shrunk by more than 90 per cent since the 1960s due to climate change, over-extraction and population pressures. As a result, domestic rice production meets less than half of national demand, forcing costly imports and exposing the country to price volatility in global food markets.
The new agricultural project aims to rehabilitate irrigation infrastructure, promote high-yield and climate-resilient rice varieties, and enhance value-chain integration through farmer cooperatives and agro-processing facilities.
By improving water management and expanding irrigated farmland, the initiative could help stabilize food supplies for hundreds of thousands of rural households. It also aligns with Chad’s National Development Plan, which identifies sustainable agriculture and renewable energy as strategic pillars for poverty reduction and resilience building.
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Since 1976, the OPEC Fund has invested about $155 million in Chad across key sectors including transport, education, agriculture and energy. Its latest loans come at a time when international development finance is increasingly linking climate adaptation with food and energy systems. The institution’s Climate Action Plan targets 40 per cent of total commitments to climate-related projects by 2030, while its Food Security Action Plan seeks to promote self-sufficiency through climate-smart agriculture and improved supply chains. In Chad, both goals converge in tangible, high-impact investments.
Experts say such financing is particularly critical for countries in the Sahel, where overlapping shocks; conflict, migration, commodity dependence and climate variability, continue to undermine development gains. The United Nations estimates that around 6.9 million Chadians face acute food insecurity during lean seasons, while inflation and disrupted trade routes exacerbate vulnerability. Reliable access to clean energy could unlock irrigation potential, refrigeration for food storage and processing capacity, helping to break the recurrent cycle of agricultural losses and rural poverty.
For Africa’s broader energy transition, projects like these illustrate the role of blended finance and concessional lending in bridging the infrastructure gap. The International Energy Agency estimates that achieving universal access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030 will require annual investments of about $30 billion, ten times current spending levels. External financiers such as the OPEC Fund therefore play a catalytic role, especially in countries with limited fiscal space and fragile governance systems.
For food systems, the linkage between energy access and productivity is direct: irrigation powered by solar energy can increase crop yields by up to 200 per cent in arid regions, while improved cold storage can reduce post-harvest losses that currently average 30 to 40 per cent across many African countries. By addressing both food and energy through complementary projects, the OPEC Fund’s dual-loan approach in Chad offers a more integrated model of sustainability financing, one that connects rural livelihoods, climate adaptation and energy equity.
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As the loans move toward implementation, success will depend on transparent project management, technical capacity and coordination among local agencies. If executed effectively, the initiatives could create measurable improvements in access to clean power and domestic food supply, contributing not only to national resilience but also to the broader continental agenda for sustainable growth.
