The World Bank-backed Mwinda Fund, which could become Africa’s second-largest financial facility for off-grid power projects, expects to start disbursing money in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the first quarter of next year.
The fund, to be managed by GreenMax Capital Group and grow to $500 million over three years, aims to boost electrification in a country with the world’s second-largest number of people without access to power after Nigeria.
The facility is part of a World Bank-backed program known as Mission 300 that seeks to connect 300 million people in Africa to electricity by 2030 by investing tens of billions of dollars. Of the 680 million people without access to power globally 84% are in sub-Saharan Africa.
In Congo, about 80 million of the country’s more than 100 million people have no access to electricity, compared with 86 million in Nigeria. With an area roughly the size of Western Europe and a poorly developed grid, many Congolese remain far from the nearest power connections.
So far, the fund has received $65 million from the World Bank and a further $7 million from the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet. It seeks to support projects such as solar mini-grids for small communities and providers of solar home systems.
GreenMax, which manages six funds across Africa, plans to offer guarantees to encourage domestic banks to lend to projects.
The first applications for funding are being sought this month and will be assessed in coming months, he said. Funding will depend on the results of the projects in terms of increasing electricity access.