Renewable energy suppliers have funds to support their activities during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. The African Development Bank (AfDB) is making the Off-Grid Infrastructure Reconstruction Platform (OIRP) available to them. It is endowed with a mixed financing of 50 million dollars, of which 20 million dollars are provided by the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA).
Administered by the AfDB, this €95 million trust fund, funded by the governments of Denmark, the United States and Norway, is designed to support small and medium-scale renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. According to the AfDB, the CBP will be based on a partnership with three fund managers specialising in energy access, “selected through a competitive process”, including Triple Jump, Lion’s Head Global Partners and Social Investment Managers and Advisors.
The partners’ contribution
“The $20 million concessional envelope will be augmented by their own equity and instruments (partners), which will provide $30 to $40 million in additional commercial financing and more affordable debt products,” says the AfDB. Its new facility aims to provide relief and recovery capital to energy access enterprises, supporting them during and after the pandemic.
The CBP will benefit companies that market and deploy solar home systems, mini-grids, clean cooking systems and other decentralised renewable energy solutions. The financial support from the Abidjan-based Pan-African Bank is endorsed by major off-grid energy sector associations, including the Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE), the Africa Mini-Grids Developers Association (AMDA) and the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (GOGLA).
“The platform’s innovative co-investment structure allows fund managers, such as Lion’s Head, to focus on what we do best: mobilising and deploying human and financial capital to provide sustainable energy to vulnerable communities while targeting critical post-pandemic issues such as local currency financing in a period of great uncertainty and volatility,” said Harry Guinness, Managing Director of the Off-Grid Energy Access Fund (OGEF), which is part of the AfDB’s Energy Inclusion Facility (EIF).
Jean Marie Takouleu