Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank of Ceylon is planning to finance renewable power plants in Africa with the help of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), said Gamini Dharmasiri, head of corporate banking at Commercial Bank.
He said the bank is looking at projects in Africa similar to the kind of renewable energy projects funded in Sri Lanka. "We are planning to enter the Ugandan energy sector which is severely under-utilized and provides a lot of scope for us," he said.
IFC’s Deva de Silva said his institution will underwrite 50% of the project and would receive a commission for sharing the risk.
Per Kjellerhaug, an IFC regional manager, said the Dutch government would be providing Commercial Bank the technical expertise, while Norwegian and Japanese trust funds will be financing the project if the need arises.