Zafiri announces USD 176 million commercial launch to accelerate energy access via the private sector across Sub-Saharan Africa
EEP Africa
Zafiri, a platform under Mission 300, initiated by IFC, accelerates access to clean energy across Sub-Saharan Africa by supporting decentralised renewable energy (DRE) companies that deliver electricity and clean cooking solutions to households and businesses.
NDF is one of the founding partners of Zafiri and has invested USD 15 million in it, contributing concessional capital to de-risk the platform and crowd in additional investors. Zafiri aims to facilitate more than 10 million new electricity connections by 2030, rising to at least 30 million over its lifetime.
At the Africa Energy Forum in Cape Town, South Africa, Inspired Evolution, the investment manager of Zafiri, announced the USD 176 million commercial launch of Zafiri, a blended permanent-capital vehicle focused on expanding access to electricity for tens of millions of people across sub-Saharan Africa.
“NDF celebrates Zafiri's launch together with the partners as an important milestone to scale up access to distributed renewable energy in Sub-Saharan Africa. Through catalytic financing, Zafiri's success will help mobilise significant commercial financing into currently under-invested distributed renewable energy sub-sectors with the aim of transforming lives and livelihoods of climate-vulnerable communities.” – Satu Santala, NDF Managing Director.
Zafiri addresses one of Africa’s toughest energy financing gaps by channelling long-term equity into DRE companies bringing reliable, affordable power to communities beyond the reach of traditional grids. It will deploy patient equity into distributed renewable energy (DRE) companies and projects across Sub-Saharan Africa, including mini-grids, solar home systems, productive-use energy solutions, and clean cooking enterprises. At least 50% of the platform’s capital is expected to support sub-sectors that provide people with new or improved electricity connections in order to contribute to the ambitious goals of Mission 300.