OFID supports newly-launched Energy Access Fund

The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) has extended €5m for an equity participation in the Energy Access Fund (EAF), an impact investment fund sponsored by Schneider Electric. The newly-launched fund will transform millions of lives in underserved communities in sub-Saharan Africa through the provision of low-carbon, affordable access to electricity.

Energy poverty is one of the greatest hindrances to socio-economic development in low-income countries. In sub-Sahara Africa alone, well over 600 million people are living without access to a reliable, affordable and sustainable source of energy.

The EAF will support private enterprises that provide energy solutions in rural and peri-urban areas, where traditional sources of funding are hard to come by. Targeted countries include Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Schneider Electric is a global specialist in energy management with operations in over 100 countries. Other partners in the EAF are the CDC Group; the European Investment Bank; the Investment and Support Fund for Businesses in Africa; PROPARCO, the French Global Environment Facility and the French Development Agency.

In 2008, OFID introduced its Energy for the Poor Initiative and dubbed Universal Energy Access the “Missing 9th MDG.” The institution has played a leading role in the Un Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s Sustainable Energy for All Initiative and in helping shape the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the eradication of energy poverty as SDG7. OFID is committed to pursuing all viable solutions, including those based on renewable and conventional energy sources.

As of the end of 2014, OFID had approved nearly US$3.9bn, almost one-quarter of its commitments, in support of energy-related projects ranging from the construction and rehabilitation of infrastructure and installation of household connections, to research and capacity building.