The Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa (BGFA) programme has signed an agreement with the off-grid energy service company Easy Solar Ltd to support the scale-up of high-quality solar home systems and appliances in the country.
Easy Solar is the fourth project to be contracted in Liberia by the BGFA programme. In total, the four contracted companies plan to establish up to some 94,000 off-grid energy connections by the end of 2026, providing energy access for people living in rural and peri-urban areas in the country.
“We are very happy to sign our fourth project in Liberia with Easy Solar to support their scale-up in the country. With this project, BGFA can provide energy access up to some 470,000 people living in remote communities in Liberia,” commented Kari Hämekoski, Senior Programme Manager at Nefco.
Easy Solar is a last-mile distribution company providing solar home systems, productive appliances and consumer electronics in remote areas of Liberia and Sierra Leone. Since establishing operations in Liberia in 2018, Easy Solar has installed 0.63 MW in solar capacity and established over 7,000 energy service subscriptions, providing approximately 50,000 people with energy access in Liberia. With the BGFA funding, Easy Solar will scale up its current business activities in the country using a pay-as-you-go business model, and it plans to establish over 9,000 new energy service subscriptions over a four-year period. The product portfolio includes solar home systems for lighting, mobile phone charging, radio, TV and fans, as well as water pumping solutions and freezers for productive use of electricity.
“As a last mile distributor operating one of the largest off-grid retail networks in West Africa, we are proud to partner with BGFA. With their support, we will be able to scale up our activities and deepen our penetration in Liberia, providing access to clean energy and other life-improving goods to thousands living in off-grid communities,” said Alexandre Tourre, CEO and Co-Founder at Easy Solar.
The financed project will help to improve the affordability of off-grid energy products in Liberia and in the long term support higher standards of education, increase gender equality and create new employment opportunities in the country through productive use of electricity.
The Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa has so far contracted eleven projects from its first funding round, which opened in autumn 2020 in Burkina Faso, Liberia and Zambia, and further projects are under negotiation. Funding rounds have also been carried out in Mozambique, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
For further information, please contact:
Kari Hämekoski, Senior Programme Manager at Nefco
kari.hamekoski@nefco.int, +35810 618 0660
About BGFA
The Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa (BGFA) is a multi-donor facility established and managed by Nefco – the Nordic Green Bank. Nefco is an international financial institution based in Helsinki, Finland, focusing on environmental and climate investments and fund management. The BGFA programme is implemented by Nefco together with its two project implementation partners. NIRAS is a development and engineering consultancy company headquartered in Denmark with offices in over 25 countries across Europe, Africa, South Asia and Latin America. The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), an international multilateral partnership based in Vienna, Austria, works to accelerate market-based deployment of renewable energy and energy-efficiency solutions in developing countries.
The current EUR 107.6 million BGFA programme was established in 2019 on Sweden’s initiative through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). It has since been developed by Nefco into a multi-donor programme. Sweden contributes SEK 835 million (EUR 80 million) from the Swedish embassies of the BGFA project countries. Denmark, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, contributes DKK 117.5 million (EUR 15.8 million) to support the programme in Uganda. Power Africa, an initiative administered by USAID, is providing an in-kind technical assistance contribution worth USD 4.5 million (approx. EUR 4 million) over three years to help operationalise the initiative and develop a pipeline of commercially viable projects within the framework of BGFA. Germany, through its development bank KfW, is supporting the BGFA country programme in Zambia by providing EUR 7.5 million.
About Easy Solar
Easy Solar improves the lives of people across West Africa by distributing solar energy solutions and other transformative durable goods. These are made affordable through a range of flexible financing options, facilitated by pay-as-you-go technology and mobile money, and are accessible through an extensive network of agents and shops. Since 2016, the company has served over 720,000 people and has established more than 30 shops across Sierra Leone and 10 across Liberia. For more information, please visit www.easysolar.org
Photo: Saleswoman in Liberia using a solar driven Easy Solar lamp for her product stall – Easy Solar