Month: December 2019

Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) gave $81.30 to Mozambique’s national energy utility, Electricidade De Mocambique (EDM) for the rehabilitation and upgrading of the energy supply network.

This financing support is in line with Mozambique’s 2030 plan to upgrade its power network for it to provide universal electricity access.

Electricidade De Mocambique has launched several projects focusing on strengthening the transmission grid and improving distribution capacity in the country.

Phase one is ready for implementation. It comprises of two out of twelve projects located at Pemba City and Maputo City at an estimated cost of $81.30 million.

Also Read: African Development Banks and ABSA sign Risk Participation Agreement

The DBSA loan facility will be advanced directly to EDM as a 15-year senior debt facility.

Banco Nacional de Investimento (BNI), Mozambique’s development bank served as the project’s evaluation partner and providing capital raising and advisory services.

Development Bank of Southern Africa …

Norfund has closed an investment agreement with the mini-grid company We Light. The aim is to build mini-grids in hundreds of villages in Madagascar, and thereby improve the rural population’s access to cheaper and more reliable electricity – at work and at home. We Light will also explore opportunities elsewhere in Africa.

To date, approximately 500 000 households have solar home systems in Madagascar. We Light’s hybrid plants, with solar, battery and diesel generators are very flexible and scalable. They can optimize electricity generation as best suited to the load pattern of the customers, and thereby be a reliable and cost-effective source of electricity for the village.

For the rural population, this means amongst others that kerosene lamps can be replaced with safe lamps with improved light. Mobile phones and computers can be charged whenever needed, and the public information will become easily available through internet, TV and radio.

The …

Contrary to media projections, the largest movement of African migrants is within Africa…

M-KOPA, the Kenyan pay-as-you-go solar company has this week completed the rollout in Kenya of its new fridges to all 65 its retail outlets. It is available as part of the company’s M-KOPA MK6500 system, with daily payments of only KSh 165.

This ground-breaking 100L fridge was developed specifically for Africa in partnership with   Embraco Nidec, a global cooling brand and part of Nidec Global Appliance. It won the Unit Cost Affordability Prize in the 2019 Global Leap Awards for off-grid appliances.

The Younma-branded fridge features Embraco’s innovative DC compressor, which provides lower starting power and greater energy efficiency, compared to a traditional model. It was developed with support from Shell Foundation in partnership with UKAID and USAID.

M-KOPA Customer, Esther Mutua says “Before I got the fridge, I was selling one [drinks] crate per week, but now, because I have a fridge, I sell two or three more crates …

The French Development Agency (AFD) is to provide about $30 Million through its African Guarantee Fund (AGF) for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.

The fund is meant to help improve access to credit to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) throughout Africa.

The sub-participation agreement of the $30 million funds was signed by Mr Rémy Rioux, AFD Chief Executive Officer and Mr Félix Bikpo, AGF Group Chief Executive.

The agreement signed between AFD and AGF broadens the existing cooperation between the two entities, by providing AGF with a counter-guarantee of $30 million, using the ARIZ risk-sharing mechanism which is a support for the risk of financing private investment.

The risk-sharing mechanism is in a final loss guarantee offered to financial institutions by AFD to cover 50 per cent to 75 per cent of an individual loan or a loan portfolio for microfinance institutions (MFIs) and SMEs.

The counter-guarantee will enable AGF to …

European Union (EU) financial aid for Morocco for the year 2014 to 2018, provided limited added value and ability to support reforms in the country, according to a new report from the European Court of Auditors (ECA).

The auditors said that the European Commission addressed the needs identified in national and EU strategies, but it spread the funding across too many areas, which may have weakened its impact.

The auditors also found the Commission’s management of budget support programmes for Morocco being affected by weaknesses in the way they were designed, implemented and monitored and also in the assessment of results.

Also Read: European Union out to get more Kenyans study abroad

The European Union is Morocco’s biggest donor of development aid. For the period between 2014-2020, the Commission programmed €1.4 billion of aid, mainly for the three priority sectors the rule of law, social services and sustainable growth.

By …

Africa’s water sectors and users are being forced into the innovation lane at a time when water quality infrastructure are falling.

A study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2014, revealed that the annual funding gap for infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa ranges close to $50 billion with water alone using $11 billion.

In 2018, the African Development Bank put Africa’s infrastructure funding gap between $130 and $170 billion per year.

Also Read: Tanzania’s lake zone waterways get $38 million financing

According to the OECD study, a quarter of the 1.2 billion population in sub-Saharan Africa have no close source of clean drinking water while another 700 million are without decent sanitation. This is despite falling investment in water infrastructure leading to limit access to safe water and ease of doing business.

International Consortium for Africa indicates that in 2016 without donor and other external financings, funding …

Finland to contribute €68.4 million to the restoration of the African Development Fund (AfDF). Finland’s pledge consists of a grant and a concessional loan to be presented next year

The fund is the concessional window of the African Development Bank Group. Finland is also preparing a loan of  €80 million for the African Development Fund . The fund grants concessional loans to Africa’s poorest countries. The fund is usually restored after every three years.

More than 30 donor countries and representatives of African countries reached an agreement on the restoration of the AfDF for 2019–2022. The donor countries’ development cooperation funding totalled to €5.5 billion of the total financing package of €6.8 billion.

Also Read: Finland Economic Affairs minister leads trade mission to Kenya

Finland’s pledge means a 45% increase on the €62.8 million contributed in the 2016–2019 replenishment round.
The objectives of the AfDF are in line with Finland’s …

South Africa is projected to experience a long haul of power cuts, which have taking new stages over the past 14 years due to several operational failures under the nation’s electricity public utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.

Eskom is a state-owned company, designated for generating, transmitting, and distributing electricity.

According to a Bloomberg report, South Africa’s economy hangs in the balance not only as country but as the beacon of the continent manufacturing industrial complex and diversified economy.  Eskom projects that there would be power outages expected to take away 6,000 megawatts from the grid, beginning this Monday.

This means that the current power cut off has doubled from the earlier announcement aired on 6 December 2019, which cited the deficit of 2,000 megawatts from its generating capacity.

As highlighted by Bloomberg, this is a result of the company losing its hold on additional generating units at its power stations.…

Rwanda—East Africa’s fastest-growing economy has paved the way for Qatar Airways—world’s best airline in 2019, to get 60 per cent stake in the new $1.3 billion international airports in Rwanda.

This is according to a Reuters report which says that the information was revealed by state-run development board on Monday 10 December 2019.

The international news outlet says the development board highlighted that the first phase of construction would provide facilities for 7 million passengers a year in the Bugesera district, about 25 km southeast of the nation’s capital Kigali.

Further, the second phase, which is expected to be completed by 2032, would double capacity to 14 million passengers a year.

Rwanda has been an active economic performer in the region, whereby—the African Development Bank report shows that the real GDP growth in Rwanda reached 6.1 per cent in 2017 and was estimated at 7.2 per cent in 2018 …