The Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa (BGFA) is today publishing its inaugural Impact Report, highlighting the key achievements of the Facility in 2022 in accelerating off-grid energy services by providing results-based financing for energy service providers in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2022, 13 companies were contracted in 4 Sub-Saharan countries. Their projects are expected to establish 953,000 new energy service subscriptions in the coming four years, which have the potential to provide clean energy access for 4.8 million people in rural areas of Burkina Faso, Liberia, Uganda and Zambia. The BGFA programme has committed EUR 25 million in results-based financing to these 13 investees, which in turn are seeking to mobilise EUR 80-100 million in additional funding over the lifetime of the agreements, scheduled to end in 2027.
“The BGFA programme is one of Sweden’s innovative flagship programmes that we at the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) are proud to have co-created and support. BGFA is a shining example of one of the new catalytic financing approaches Sida has introduced to its toolbox of instruments to help increase energy access in Africa. We are proud to report our initial results,”comments Anders Arvidson, Chair of the BGFA Steering Committee.
The report highlights the initial development impacts of the companies. Based on outcomes checked and approved by implementation partner and monitoring consultant NIRAS, the BGFA contributed to the establishment of over 38,000 energy service connections through the initial four companies which reported their first achievements in 2022. This will result in the avoidance of approx. 4,500 tonnes of greenhouse gases annually.
“2022 was an important year for the BGFA programme, marking a number of milestones and delivering our first monitored impacts, including bringing energy access to over 200,000 people in Burkina Faso, Liberia and Zambia. We made disbursements worth EUR 2.77 million to our initial investees, the supported companies, enabling them to leverage further capital and reach their ambitious business targets for bringing clean energy to rural populations,” comments Ash Sharma, Head of BGFA and Vice President for Special Funds at Nefco.
For further information about the Impact Report 2022:
Visit beyondthegrid.africa and read the full Impact Report
Download the report for printing
The BGFA regularly publishes information on its growing portfolio of financed companies at beyondthegrid.africa
For further information, please contact:
Ash Sharma, Vice President of Special Funds at Nefco and Head of BGFA
ash.sharma@nefco.int, +358 10 618 0653
Kari Hämekoski, Senior Programme Manager at Nefco
kari.hamekoski@nefco.int, +358 10 618 0660
Lia Oker-Blom, Senior Communications Officer at Nefco
lia.oker-blom@nefco.int, +358 10 618 0671
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 with the support of 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 126 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 830 million from the Swedish embassies in all BGFA project countries. Denmark contributes DKK 117.5 million through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to support the programme in Uganda. Germany provides EUR 7.5 million through its development bank KfW to support the BGFA country programme in Zambia. Norway contributes NOK 200 million through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation Norad. Power Africa, an initiative administered by USAID, is providing an in-kind technical assistance contribution worth USD 4.5 million.
Photo: Farmer in Zambia cultivating and irrigating his land with an off-grid solar-powered water pump