AFRICA: Sefa finances $10 million for the electrification of one million people
The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (Sefa) provides $10 million in funding to CrossBoundary Access. This mechanism for financing mini-solar networks aims to electrify one million people over the coming years.
While 580 million Africans do not yet have access to electricity, CrossBoundary Access wants to rely on solar mini-grids to reverse values. The CrossBoundary group's electrification financing mechanism has just obtained $10 million in financing from the Sustainable Energy Fund in Africa (Sefa) of the African Development Bank (AfDB) group.
“Sefa's patient capital investment will go a long way in demonstrating a viable project financing model, attracting more commercial financiers and expanding access to renewable electricity on the African continent,” explains João Sarmento Cunha, the director of Sefa. Concretely, this funding is granted as part of a project to electrify one million Africans, supported by CrossBoundary Acces.
The project has already received $25 million in funding in June 2022 from ARCH Emerging Markets Partners, Bank of America and Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund. As part of this project, CrossBoundary will deploy an investment of $150 million over the next three years for the construction of mini-electric grids powered by solar photovoltaic energy.
These funds are being mobilized at a time when the mini-grid segment needs $187 billion in investment to achieve universal access to electricity by 2030. In Nigeria, CrossBoundary Access has already started implementing implementation of its electrification project by signing a $60 million investment agreement with the French company Engie Energy Access. Objective, to electrify 150,000 people living in rural areas through a portfolio of solar mini-networks.
