Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa

Background:

The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) is a multi-donor Special Fund managed by the African Development Bank providing catalytic finance to unlock private sector investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency. SEFA avails technical assistance and concessional finance instruments to remove market barriers, build a more robust pipeline of projects and improve the risk-return profile of individual investments. SEFA’s overarching goal is to contribute to universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy services for all in Africa, in line with the New Deal on Energy for Africa and Sustainable Development Goal 7.

SEFA was established in 2011 in partnership with the Government of Denmark and has since received contributions from the Governments of United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Norway, Spain, and Sweden.

SEFA is housed in the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Department (PERN) under the Power, Energy, Climate, and Green Growth (PEVP) complex.

Notable achievements:

SEFA has been spearheading African Development Bank’s engagement in green mini-grids, both through the Market Development Program and country-focused enabling environment support, paving the way for the first two African Development Bank -supported scale-up programmes in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burkina Faso.

SEFA is also a cornerstone facility in the development of energy blended finance initiatives championed by African Development Bank : It played a catalytic role in the preparation and financial close of the Africa Renewable Energy Fund– one of the first pan-African equity funds for renewable energy – reaching a $200 million capitalization in 2014, and subsequently  in establishing the Facility for Energy Inclusion – a pan-African debt financing platform for small-scale renewables - which has mobilized $250m by end of 2019.

Scope:

SEFA supports interventions across three strategic priorities:

• Green Baseload (GBL): increasing the penetration of renewable energy in power systems, with a strong focus on power system stability, and delivering alternatives to fossil-fuel baseload generation options.
• Green Mini-Grids (GMG): accelerating electricity access to underserved populations through clean energy mini-grid solutions. 
• Energy Efficiency (EE): improving the efficiency of energy services delivered through a variety of technologies and business models, also including clean cooking and pico-solar technologies.

Instruments:

Technical Assistance (TA): Support through grants with a strong focus on activities that will directly unlock investments. TA grants are available to public and private sector entities.

Concessional Investment (CI): Support through Results-Based Financing, loans, and equity instruments often blended with African Development Bank investments to close viability gaps.

Our Eligibility Criteria:

Funding requests must be aligned with SEFA’s three strategic priorities: (i) Green Baseload; (ii) Green Mini-Grids; (iii) Energy Efficiency.

Special attention will be given to proposals which: (i) are implemented in countries with limited renewable energy experience; (ii) present demonstration and replication potential, with “first-of-a-kind” features; (iii) provide cross-cutting benefits across several domains such as agriculture, education, food, gender, health, and water.

Due consideration will also be given to aspects of economic and financial viability, namely through strong alignment with national plans and strategies, cost-competitiveness and quality of service, and ability to generate returns and attract additional investors.

Finally, applications will be assessed across a range of indicators and anticipated development outputs and outcomes, including: (i) commercial finance leveraged by the project; (ii) MW of sustainable energy generation installed (and/or degree of energy efficiency achieved); (iii) new jobs created, disaggregated by gender, and; (iv) annual GHG emission reductions delivered.

Our Process and Timeline

The SEFA Technical Unit reviews all application forms received and advises on eligibility, strategic alignment/priority and readiness for further processing. Additional information may be requested as part of this initial assessment. Applications that clear this screening stage will then enter the pipeline and move to the appraisal stage. During the appraisal stage, a thorough due diligence will be conducted, and if cleared, the project will be presented to subsequent management committees and African Development Bank Board of Directors for clearance and final approval.

Submit a Funding Request

To submit a funding request, complete this application form and submit it to sefa.application@afdb.org.

Given the high volume of requests, we regret that we are unable to support all requests for SEFA funding.

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