GET.invest partners with Nefco to support the BGFA and MCFA programmes
Carrying the mandate of its donors – the European Union, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Austria – GET.invest is committed to the transition to clean and sustainable energy, in light of the European Green Deal, the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But such transition can only be delivered through a collaborative effort. To create synergies and avoid duplication, GET.invest works closely with partners who provide similar or related services to the market, engaging into deeper and structured cooperation when there is high potential to have more impact.
Building on this experience, GET.invest and the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (Nefco) have recently joined forces to help clean energy companies access finance. Supported by several common donors, the partnership comes as a step forward building on the mutual objective of both entities: to increase investments into clean energy and clean cooking projects and companies in sub-Saharan Africa at scale, and to contribute to advancing the SDGs and the Just Transitions. The collaboration is part of GET.invest’s mandate for the Team Europe One Stop Shop, under which the programme is intensifying its cooperation with financiers to accelerate the deployment of green energy solutions in Europe’s partner countries.
In essence, the partnership with Nefco intends to mobilise further capital for the growing portfolio of companies benefiting from the results-based financing offered under Nefco’s Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa (BGFA) and Modern Cooking Facility for Africa (MCFA) – two multi-donor energy access facilities established and managed by Nefco. Both BGFA and MCFA require co-financing from their investees at the beginning of contracting and additional leveraging of finance through the lifetime of their agreements.
The path to achieve such synergy is paved with the catalytic funding from Nefco combined with GET.invest’s track record of supporting more than 380 clean energy companies and helping over 140 of them successfully reach the doorsteps of financiers.
In this line, Michael Franz, Team Leader GET.invest stated: “We are excited to build on our established track record with Nefco and further deepen our partnership to harness synergies for faster and more aligned support to clean energy and cooking companies”.
Ash Sharma, Vice President at Nefco and Head of the BGFA and MCFA stated: “The essence of the BGFA and MCFA approach is to provide limited public financing to de-risk private companies entering the off grid and clean cooking markets and to help them bring their businesses to scale. This requires mobilisation of private capital. We are delighted to partner with proven investment facilitation programme GET.invest to support our investees in this endeavour.”
As a first step, on 20 April, Nefco organised an online webinar where GET.invest and the Private Financing Advisory Network (PFAN) presented their combined services to an initial cohort of about 20 clean energy companies linked to BGFA.
In addition to supporting companies access finance, the two organisations are already working in concert to help BGFA awardees leverage their data to improve bankability as part of the Prospect data initiative, together with the Access to Energy Institute (A2EI).