OREANDA-NEWS. Schneider Electric in partnership with, CDC Group – the UK Department for International Development (DFID), European Investment Bank, FISEA – PROPARCO, OFID, and AFD- FFEM, announce the launch of the Energy Access Fund to improve access to sustainable energy in Sub-Saharan Africa. The new fund will transform lives and stimulate economic development across Africa by providing access to electricity for a million people by 2020.

The Professional Private Equity Fund which will be managed by Aster Capital and advised by Energy Access Venture (EAV) company based in Africa, has secured commitments of EUR 54.5 million to invest in 5-year instruments for around 20 African SME. 

625 million people living in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity?.  Lack of electricity holds back social progress, economic growth and environmental improvements. The Energy Access Ventures Fund will to provide long-term funding to support access to energy for the poorest populations by strengthening local energy infrastructure.

The Fund will target smaller businesses in Africa that specialize in promoting low-carbon and low cost electricity access solutions in rural areas and close to main towns and that cannot access regular finance. It will focus in a first instance on Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
 
In addition to funding, a range of technical support will be provided to offer practical help and advice for local businesses concerning management, governance, energy efficiency, and environmental best practices. The Fund will also provide the following resources to its selected beneficiaries:

  • Access to skilled professionals via Schneider-Electric operations staff (engineers, procurement specialists, marketing experts and engineering consultants) to support local businesses and share their skills to reinforce existing human capital;
  • A social and environmental impact assessment of their activities to help reduce their environmental impact;
  • Technical advice to help meet international compliance regulations;

The objective of the Energy Access ventures Fund is to combine economic investment, innovation, and skill development. The Fund will be backed by the experience acquired as the investment arm of the Schneider Electric Energy Access fund (SEEA), to help develop entrepreneurial initiatives to improve access to energy.

About Schneider Electric

A global specialist in energy management with operations in over 100 countries, Schneider Electric offers integrated solutions across multiple market segments, including leadership positions in Residential & Non-residential Buildings, Manufacturing & Machine Tooling, Utilities & Infrastructures, and Data Centres & Networks. Focused on making energy safe, reliable, efficient, productive and green, the Group’s 170,000-plus employees achieved sales of 25 billion euros in 2014, through an active commitment to helping individuals and organisations make the most of their energy. 

About CDC Group
CDC is the UK government-owned development finance institution that uses its own balance sheet to invest in the developing countries of Africa and South Asia.
CDC’s mission is to support the building of businesses in Africa and South Asia, creating jobs and making a lasting difference to people’s lives in some of the world’s poorest places. Under its new strategy, CDC provides debt and direct investment to businesses as well as acting as a fund-of-funds investor. CDC now only makes new investment commitments in Africa and South Asia. It has net assets of ?2.8bn.

About the Impact Programme
The Impact Programme was launched by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) in 2012 to catalyse the market for impact investment in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. As part of this programme, the DFID Impact Fund, a fund of funds managed by CDC, the UK’s Development Finance Institution, aims to provide finance to more than 100 enterprises via impact investment intermediaries and catalyse additional private capital. 

About the European Investment Bank
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union owned by its Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals.