Page 8 - AfrElec Week 43 2020

AfrElec RENEWABLES AfrElec

World Bank to release first $4.6mn of

funding for off-grid solar in Kenya

KENYA UP to 19 off-grid solar companies in Kenya have products as defined by ISO IWA standards.
been offered access to KES500mn ($4.6mn) of The KOSAP programme is administered by
credit as part of the World Bank’s $150mn Kenya Kenya’s Ministry of Energy, the state-run Rural
Off-grid Solar Access Programme (KOSAP). Electrification and Renewable Energy Corp. and
The initial KES500mn ($4.6mn) will be state utility Kenya Power.
offered to private solar home system and clean It aims to distribute 250,000 solar home sys-
cooking stove suppliers to enable them to buy tems and 150,000 clean cooking stoves in the
stock and set up distribution networks in the 14 off-grid counties as part of Nairobi’s push for
Kenyan counties targeted by the KOSAP scheme. universal electricity access by 2022 and clean
The KOSAP initiative is aiming to bring solar cooking facilities by 2028.
power to 250,000 off-grid Kenyan households The credit lines are being managed by Dutch
and businesses by 2023, with total financing over development lender SNV Netherlands Devel-
four years set to reach KES4.7bn ($41mn). opment Organisation and San Francisco-based
The funding round, which will include private impact investor Sunfunder.
short-term loans and ‘results-based financing’, The wider KOSAP initiative also aims to
will offer credit to 10 private companies which establish community mini-grids and solar water
distribute individual solar home system panels pumps in the 14 counties and will open up a
across the 14 counties. further three more finance rounds for a total of
Eligible suppliers include Ms Solibrium, the KES1.2bn ($10.6mn) of results-based finance
Ms Greenlight Planet Kenya operation of Chi- and KES3bn ($26.5mn) of short-term borrow-
cago-based Greenlight, Ms Solar Integrated ing, structured in such a way as to enable private
Appliances and the Ms Azuri Technologies arm distributors to offer affordable repayment plans
of Cambridge, UK-based Azuri. to customers.
To qualify for the credit, the companies must Kenya was recently highlighted as one of
offer fixed and portable systems which can three African nations leading the way in the
power at least two fixed lights, a portable light, effort to drive renewables adoption during the
phone charging and radio operation. coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.
Nine clean cookstove companies – including A review of preliminary government inter-
Ms Rafadone Renewable Energy and New York- ventions report by the Pan African University
based Ms Biolite Holdings alongside Solar Inte- has also criticised a tendency among African
grated Appliances – which operate across eight governments to rely on donor aid to deploy clean
of the 14 KOSAP counties – will also have access energy, as in the KOSAP programme.™
to the borrowing facility, to supply at least Tier 2

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 43 29•October•2020