Friday
December 17
2021

BMZ, KfW Creating Clean Energy and Energy Inclusion for Africa (CEI Africa) with Goals Including to Enable Diaspora Investments via Crowdfunding

Two German institutions, Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ) and KfW, which was formerly known as Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, are launching a foundation called Clean Energy and Energy Inclusion for Africa (CEI Africa). The foundation has EUR 49 million (USD 55.2 million) to donate in support of “climate-friendly power supplies for people in sparsely populated areas of sub-Saharan Africa.” Triple Jump of the Netherlands has been selected as the lead manager of CEI Africa, with US-based GreenMax Capital Advisors and Switzerland-based Persistent to assist in managing the foundation.

CEI Africa will support the deployment of mini-grids and other renewable energy systems, including “grain mills, water pumping, cold storage” and others. Additionally, CEI Africa will support crowdlending platforms to help diaspora members and other interested individuals lend to support renewable energy. KfW expects the initial funding to allow CEI Africa to support 187 “off-grid and small-scale power networks” and 70,000 new power connections, serving 350,000 people.

Photo courtesy of David Monje.

Source: MicroCapital (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Energy
Tags
energy access, global development, renewable energy