A US$250 million facility is being set up to finance off-grid solar projects to supply electricity to 72 million people in 16 African countries, stretching from the DRC to Somalia.

The Hardest-to-Reach Initiative has the support of the South Korea-based Green Climate Fund, which will contribute $65 million in the form of grants and junior equity.

To be established by Acumen, a US-based company that promotes universal energy access, the initiative will finance the entry of solar companies into the 16 identified markets, Moneyweb reports.

Acumen CEO Jacqueline Novogratz says the facility will enable ‘companies to go into those places where there’s really no market whatsoever for very low-income people. And then there will also be a debt facility to allow companies to grow and to stay within those nations’.

12 December 2023
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