The African Development Bank says it has secured $90 million in new donor commitments towards the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA).
In a statement dated Wednesday, the AfDB said the SEFA had also been transformed on Monday into an expanded and more flexible fund that is more responsive to Africa’s fast changing energy market, with a sharper focus on green mini-grids and green baseload and offering a wider array of catalytic finance instruments.
Over 300 development partners and financiers attended Monday’s virtual event, as well as representatives of African governments and energy sector institutions, project developers and sponsors, commercial banks and infrastructure funds.
Denmarks’s development cooperation minister Flemming Møller Mortensen, whose country has the goal of providing clean energy to 5.8 million people in Africa, said SEFA had proven it had the capacity to implement innovative renewable energy projects, even in difficult circumstances.
The European country, SEFA’s founding partner and first donor, also unveiled $10.65 million in fresh commitments, while Germany extended €50 million ($60.97 million) to support the fund’s green baseload activities which aim to promote more sustainable baseload power generation options.
“Climate change is advancing fast and knows no borders, we can only tackle it together and in solidarity. For many years, the African Development Bank is a trusted partner for Germany and one of the most important driving forces behind a structured energy transition in Africa,” said Maria Flachsbarth, parliamentary state secretary of Germany’s economic cooperation ministry.
The Nordic Development Fund committed €10 million ($12.19 million), while the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency put forward a promise of $8.98 million.
The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa was established in 2011 in partnership with the Danish government and has supported various developers in bringing their projects to fruition while advising countries on designing innovative renewable energy and energy access programmes.
