AfDB’s Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa approves $500K for clean energy in Nigeria

Operated or managed by the African Development Bank, the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) has approved a USD 500,000 grant to support the development and launch of the Nigeria Energy Access Fund, a new private equity fund developed by All On, a Nigerian impact investment firm financed by Shell. Nigeria Energy Access Fund (NEAF) will make strategic investments in sustainable energy in Nigeria, particularly in the country’s burgeoning off-grid and mini-grid sectors.

The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) grant is said to be supporting specific workstreams to set NEAF in motion and boost its engagement with private and public sector investors. NEAF will be a first-of-its-kind facility to provide eligible projects and businesses with equity solutions that are currently unavailable in the market.

“Nigeria requires bespoke and innovative market-based solutions to provide its off-grid population, estimated at 100 million, access to sustainable sources of energy. The SEFA grant will be instrumental in the constitution of NEAF, and ultimately, the mobilization of much-needed private sector investment for the sector”, said Wale Shonibare, the Bank’s Acting Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth.

On the other hand, the NEAF is expected to complement the Bank’s wide range of sustainable energy initiatives currently being implemented in Nigeria once it gets operational. In November last year, the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank approved a USD 200 million package to support the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP), which is designed to help scale-up green mini-grid solutions with subsidies, among other measures.

SEFA approved a big amount of USD 1.5 million grant in May last year with an objective to support the first phase of the Nigerian government’s Jigawa 1-GW Independent Power Producer Solar Procurement Program. SEFA’s support to NEAF is aligned with the New Deal on Energy for Africa and the Bank’s High 5 priorities, especially ‘Light Up and Power Africa’ and ‘Improve the Quality of Lives of Africans.’