The re-launch of the Call for Proposals by the Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa to participate in the Mozambique funding round (BGFA2) will remain open until August 31. The BGFA2 aims to incentivize private off-grid energy service companies to scale up their innovative sustainable businesses and accelerate access to affordable and clean off-grid energy for customers in peri-urban and rural areas of Mozambique at specified sites agreed by the Government of Mozambique.
BGFA2-supported energy service providers are expected to be among the first ones to pilot the new regulations. The indicative individual contract size per Mini-grid cluster (concession area) is expected to be between EUR 2.0 and EUR 2.5 million.
Eligible Applicants are private companies that have already established business in Mozambique or are willing to establish a local business entity. In case the Applicant is not already established in Mozambique, the application should be filed by the parent company. Nefco will only be able to enter into BGFA financing contracts with for-profit ESPs once established in Mozambique and will require that the local company leads and undertakes full responsibility for the project implementation towards Nefco.
Companies that were pre-qualified in 2021 can update their information in the application system. Applicants are allowed to enter into various types of project implementation partnerships with for-profit and non-profit entities, community-based organizations and other non-commercial entities.
Supported technology solutions and geographical focus
Applicants may apply for BGFA2 funding for Micro/Mini-grids. Standalone solutions can only be offered as complementary solutions to Micro/Mini-grid-based solutions for customers that will not be connected to the Micro/Mini-grid(s) at the specified sites.
The BGFA Country Program for Mozambique aims to strike a balance between increasing the number of electricity connections in rural and peri-urban areas, achieving overall development impact and accelerating sustainable off-grid market development. In collaboration with FUNAE, BGFA has now prioritized 5 clusters, as specified in the Application Guidelines, where it encourages interested energy service providers to electrify local communities.
BGFA2 will use a simplified, single stage application process, in which the applicants are requested to submit an application with streamlined requirements while still maintaining the BGFA approach. The evaluation of the received applications is expected to take place in September-October 2023 and due diligence will be initiated for qualified companies in late autumn 2023.
Project implementation is expected to start in 2023 and end in 2027.
For more information visit the Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa information page here.