Africa50, the pan-African infrastructure investment platform and the International Solar Alliance (ISA), an action-oriented, member-driven, collaborative platform for increased deployment of solar energy technologies, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support and finance solar projects in Africa.
This partnership advances the organizations’ mutual goal of increasing the deployment of solar, to improve energy access, ensure energy security, and drive the energy transition around the world.
The MoU with ISA was signed earlier this month at Africa50‘s Infra for Africa Forum and General Shareholders Meeting in Lomé, Togo, which featured addresses by H.E. Faure Gnassingbé, President of the Republic of Togo, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group, and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization and Tidjane Thiam, Executive Chairman, Freedom Acquisition 1 Corp, among other notable African investment leaders.
Africa50 works with African governments and project sponsors to develop bankable projects that can be financed by the private sector and invest equity in infrastructure projects. Its recent investment in this area is the 400MW Benban Solar Plants in Egypt, the largest in Africa, which is currently supplying clean power to over 1.5 million people in the country.
In addition to strengthening capacity, synergizing policy change and promoting investments in solar capacity amongst its Member Countries, ISA is initiating a Solar Finance Facility to mitigate investment risk and a SolarX Startup Challenge to identify and support innovative solar projects for investment.