Several developing countries will benefit from $75 million in funding from the Swiss Confederation. The funding is allocated to the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), a group that invests in sustainable infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia. This financial institution operates through investment companies such as InfraCo Africa.
In recent years, the London, UK-based company has increased its investment in large-scale solar power generation in Malawi, Guinea, Chad and Kenya. InfraCo Africa also supports electrification through decentralized solar systems in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Sierra Leone. The portfolio of projects financed includes hydroelectric schemes in Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique.
Investments in renewable energy
The company headed by Gilles Vaes has also distinguished itself in recent years by supporting the development of geothermal energy in Ethiopia, ecological mobility in Uganda and Kenya, and even the development of irrigated agriculture on a continent faced with drought, which is partly the cause of food insecurity.
Read also- EGYPT: a partnership with Switzerland for plastic waste management
PIDG is also active in Africa through the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), an investment fund managed by Ninety One and dedicated to infrastructure. The group even has its own guarantee company GuarantCo, which has supported the construction of basic infrastructure in Africa, including the Kita solar photovoltaic power plant (50 MWp) in Mali and the Ambatolampy plant (40 MWp) in Madagascar.
According to the Swiss government, the $75 million investment in the PIDG is in line with its engagement with the private sector in the 2021-2024 international cooperation strategy to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This financing “is also in line with three criteria defined in this strategy, which aims: to provide people in developing countries with access to essential services, to take into account Switzerland’s long-term interests in climate protection and opportunities for its companies in the field of green technologies, and to highlight Switzerland’s added value as a recognized pole of sustainable and innovative financing for the SDGs in developing countries,” says the Swiss Federal Council.
Jean Marie Takouleu