ENERGY ACCESS FUND

The proposed operation concerns participation in the Energy Access Ventures Fund, a private equity fund that will focus on financing SMEs active in the generation and/or distribution of electricity in sub-Saharan Africa. The fund will focus on off-grid rural electrification, and will start investing in companies with operations in East Africa before expanding to other sub-Saharan African countries. The majority of the investments will be in off-grid solar technology, in particular solar home systems, micro-grid infrastructure, and other small/micro-scale renewable energy and hybrid technologies.The fund has a target size of EUR 55 million and aims to provide access to electricity to at least one million low-income beneficiaries.

The fund aims to provide access to electricity to at least one million direct low-income beneficiaries, located in rural and peri-urban areas of Sub-Saharan Africa and who lack (reliable) access to electricity. Direct beneficiaries are defined as clients, consumers of goods and services and direct employees of portfolio companies. Moreover most of the electricity produced will come from renewable energy sources thereby generating minimum negative environmental impact.

The fund's operational guidelines will provide for environmental and social due diligence of all projects, according to guidelines acceptable to the EIB.

The fund will be required to ensure that implementation of the underlying projects is done in accordance with the EIB Guide to Procurement.