Good news Africa, the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has given the green light to $32.5 million equity investment into Climate Investor One’s Construction Equity Fund (CEF).
So what is CEF?
CEF “is a platform that uses a unique blended finance approach, and targets the entire asset life cycle to deliver viable renewable energy projects to the market.”
This fund will be used not only to provide the capital, but also technical assistance for viable energy project across the continent and also market them.
Climate Fund Manager (CFM) is a partnership between the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) and Sanlam InfraWorks that will be managing the new investment into CEF.
“Significant investments are required to close the infrastructure gap and meet energy access goals. The Bank’s investment in the Fund will complement its operations in the energy sector, and unlock at least an additional $40 million dollars of investments into Africa,” said Amadou Hott, the AfDB VP for Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth.
“With nearly 600 million Africans without access to energy, there is a huge market for the Fund to invest and generate a return for its investors.”
CEF will rollout with a policy of measurable social and environmental impact, and thus will support the development of clean energy projects across developing economies in Africa. As it does so, it will also be creating jobs and providing more people access to affordable electricity.
