Recently, the ISA had set up a global solar facility in the GIFT city in India for partnership with Africa50, with the latter having been established by African governments and the African Development Bank to help bridge an infrastructure funding gap as an investment manager for Africa under the Global Solar Facility (GSF).
Africa50 is planning to leverage its regional expertise and a portfolio of 27 projects across 28 countries worth over $8 billion to ensure local agility in implementation.The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has committed to financing $150 million of its own money in an equity fund based on 1st loss of $15 million, and along with ISA, Africa50 and SEforALL (Sustainable Energy for All) has jointly launched the DRE (Distributed Renewable Energy) Africa Platform to mobilise solar capital at scale.
Khanna explained the need as he indicated that out of the $2.2 trillion of clean investment last year globally, less than 2% was in Africa, while 600 million Africans lack energy access. He added that 10% of financing from ISA is galvanising 30 times the project financing in Africa.
Lauding the Mission 300 launched by the World Bank and the African Development Bank to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030, Africa50’s CEO Alain Ebobesse suggested that the ISA may also look at backing other sources of renewable energy like wind, hydro or geothermal power as part of its decarbonisation journey to reduce the cost of energy and provide more predictability to power supply.
Also Read: ISA aims to scale solar in Africa with new facility and regional strategy
