NRECA International Expands Donor Base in Bangladesh
(NRECA International)

NRECA International, Ltd. (NRECA International) has signed a $3.8 million dollar contract with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) which will be funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) to provide technical and institutional assistance, and overall supervision and monitoring for DFID’s new five year, 50 million pound sterling (94 million dollars) support to the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Program.

Under this grant, NRECA International will be involved in the planning and selection of electrification projects, procurement of materials, and field inspections of construction of physical facilities for the rural electric cooperatives called Palli Bidyut Samities (PBSs), which operate under the guidance of the Rural Electrification Board (REB). NRECA International will also assist the REB and the PBSs in the development and implementation of member education and PBS Board development training programs, based on the successful U.S. cooperative model, which will strengthen their institutional capacity. Conducting assessments to measure socioeconomic impacts of having access to electricity will also be undertaken by NRECA International during the project period.

For nearly three decades, NRECA International has been in a long-term partnership with the REB and USAID. NRECA has played a critical role in helping the Bangladeshis build a program that is widely recognized in the donor community as one of the most successful examples of rural electrification in a developing country. As a result of this partnership, there are now 70 organized and commercially operating PBSs that provide electricity to over 30 million people in Bangladesh. PBSs have an extremely high average bill collection rate of 98% and low average system loss of 13 %.

Because of the continued success of the Bangladesh rural electrification program, The REB has been able to leverage the original funding from USAID into over $1.3 billion dollars from various organizations. The funds from DFID for the REB will connect 1.35 million households and businesses to electricity in under-served areas of Bangladesh and benefit up to 10 million people.