Afrigreen Fund

Equity : February 2023

BIO has invested EUR 10 M in the Afrigreen Debt Impact Fund, a private equity fund focused on solar renewable energy in Sub Saharan Africa.

Amount

€ 10,000,000.00

Type of investment

Equity

Development impacts

Access to basic services & goods
Fight against climate change and preservation of natural resources
Promotion of ESG best practices

Beneficiary locations

Sub-Saharan Africa: Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal

Investment field

Investment Companies & Funds

Activity

DD.35.113 Production of electricity: solar

Organisation

Afrigreen Fund

Website

https://www.rgreeninvest.com/en/

Domicile

France

The Afrigreen impact fund is a specialised professional investment fund which will offer senior debt facilities for medium-sized solar and electricity storage projects, targeting Commercial & Industrial companies (C&I) in Central and Western Africa.

The objective is to provide project finance and/or asset-based finance solutions to power generation companies (utilities, i.e. electricity companies, independent power producers) and/or the ultimate power consumer (a commercial and/or industrial company, C&I). The Fund will contribute to the energy transition in Africa aiming at reducing CO2 emissions and contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

Development impacts

Access to basic services & goods
The Fund will invest in companies that develop, install and maintain Solar based energy installations for the Commercial & Industrial (C&I) markets. C&I Solar installations provides electricity at a lower cost compared to the widely used, costly, polluting, and dangerous diesel generators.
Fight against climate change and preservation of natural resources
Inefficient and polluting energy sources (fossil fuel-based) will be replaced by more efficient and cheaper on- and off-grid C&I solar installations. The fund anticipates to install 92MW of solar panel installation resulting in over 145,000 MWh of solar electricity production by year and over 86,660 TCO2 emission reduction annually.
Promotion of ESG best practices
The fund has engaged important capacity to cover Environmental & Social (E&S) risks. E&S Management Systems are in line with BIO E&S standards and policies. In addition, Afrigreen will provide support to their clients to perform E&S evaluation (promoting E&S standards at a higher level than the legal regulation requirement).

E&S Impact

Afrigreen and BIO collaborated on an update of the fund’s Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) and of the ESG Scoring tool to ensure alignment with the IFC Performance Standards and the management of absolute risks related to the type of projects that will enter the fund. The Fund will also do a mapping exercise of its solar panel suppliers. Furthermore, BIO proposed to better formalise the fund’s commitment and to strengthen the fund’s capacity with additional trainings.

Current situation

Fund manager with a strong ESG and impact ambitions. ESG risks are currently managed by two people and streamlined via an in-house ESG Scoring tool that ensures standardisation of the process.

Risk Category: B