Page 11 - AfrElec Week 10 2021
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AfrElec RENEWABLES AfrElec
Sunfunder closes $70mn
Africa-faced solar fund
AFRICA NAIROBI-BASED solar lender Sunfunder has who believed in us and worked so hard to close
closed its oversubscribed $70mn fund to finance the SET Fund, especially during a year with so
small-scale renewables and energy storage sys- many new challenges and uncertainties. Thanks
tems in Africa and Asia. are also due to our anchor investors, who have
The fund benefited from a commitment from now made repeat investments in our work over
Austrian state-owned development bank Oester- the years. We look forward to building on these
reichische Entwicklungsbank. new and existing partnerships as we expand our
Sunfunder’s Solar Energy Transformation climate and energy access investments through
Fund announced the completion on March 8, SET and beyond.”
after being opened by anchor investors such as Sunfunder said the DFC had acted as a “risk
Calvert Impact Capital, Ceniarth, the Ikea Foun- tool partner” for the fund, along with Washing-
dation and the US International Development ton DC-based currency hedging specialist MFX
Finance Corp. (DFC). Solutions and “Sida” – thought to be the state-
Other backers of the fund included Swedish owned Swedish International Development
state-owned development financier Swedfund, Cooperation Agency.
Bank of America, the Schmidt Family Foun- In Kenya, SunFunder is involved in the Ken-
dation established by former Google CEO and yan government’s Kenya Off-Grid Solar Access
chairman Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy, indi- Project (KOSAP). This aims to form a crucial
vidual investors from the San Francisco-based part of the country’s National Electrification
Toniic network and the Mercy Investment Ser- Strategy, which aims to ensure universal access
vices ministry of the Catholic religious grouping to electricity by 2022.
the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. Since 2013, SunFunder has raised over
Ryan Levinson, CEO of SunFunder, said: $140mn for 56 companies operating in solar
“We are so grateful to our new investor partners markets across 23 African countries.
Chapel Hill Denham raises $4.6mn
for Havenhill’s mini-grid rollout
NIGERIA THE Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastruc- and generating not only financial returns but
ture Debt Fund (NIDF) has raised NGN1.8bn also making a strong, positive impact on the
($4.6mn) to fund Havenhill Synergy’s construc- daily lives of their fellow citizens,” he said.
tion of 22 mini-grids as part of the Nigeria Elec- He disclosed that financing of the project will
trification Project. be funded from the fund’s recently concluded
NIDF is the first listed infrastructure debt Series-7 capital raise, which also involved the
fund in Nigeria and will provide Havenhill the participation of the African Development Bank
long-term financing to partially fund the mini- (AfDB).
grids, which will connect 70,000 people to a “With the support of AfDB, NIDF is also
clean, reliable energy supply. implementing a comprehensive environmental
The country’s rural electrification rate is just & social management system for the fund and
39%, according to government data. also supporting its borrowers [in adopting] the
In 2019, the International Monetary Fund international best practices in the area of envi-
(IMF) also estimated that a lack of access to reli- ronmental and social sustainability,” he added.
able electricity costs Nigeria an estimated $29bn The NIDF is a close-ended fund, domiciled
a year. in Nigeria and denominated in naira. The fund
NIDF CEO Anshul Rai said that NIDF was is structured to enable investors to access infra-
playing a significant role in improving energy structure asset classes, while providing benefits
access in Nigeria. of predictable returns available from long-dated
“NIDF prides itself in being the leader in infrastructure debt investments.
financing of clean energy and energy access Havenhill Synergy deploys smart solar mini-
projects in Nigeria and thus contributing to the grids to commercially viable off-grid rural com-
achievement of UN’s sustainable Development munities. In urban areas, Havenhill provides
Goals. In multiple projects such as Havenhill, solar services to commercial and industrial
our unitholders can see their capital in action (C&I) customers.
Week 10 11•March•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11
