GEAPP & AFD Group Join Forces to Support Local Financial Institutions in Africa in Support of Mission 300

Cape Town, 26th February 2025 - The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) and Agence Française de Développement (AFD Group) announced today at the Finance in Common Summit (FiCS) their commitment to work together to mobilize up to $5 million of technical assistance to elevate the role of local financial institutions in accelerating clean energy access in Africa. This collaboration will begin with a $1.3M pilot envelope of technical assistance grants from GEAPP, to be complemented with lines of credit from AFD Group. GEAPP and AFD Group's joint investments will direct both technical and financial support to private financial institutions and Public Development Banks (PDBs) in Africa. 

The initiative is a direct response to the growing momentum among partners supporting Mission 300, the World Bank and African development Bank’s landmark ambition, to deliver affordable and sustainable electricity to 300 million people in Africa by 2030. This builds a critical foundation for crowding-in funding, resources, and tools from public, private, and philanthropic partners to scale up local and global cooperation.

The collaboration is the latest example of how the GEAPP alliance is pooling resources to support catalytic financing for projects that strengthen local financial systems. By enhancing the capacity of African financial institutions at both the regional and national levels, the window will help those institutions become more capitalized and better positioned to deploy long-term and stable resources that are essential for scaling transformative energy technologies. These technologies, such as mini-grids, solar home systems, and grid upgrades, are pivotal in addressing the energy access gap across Africa.

Mission 300 aims to empower economic growth and deliver electricity access to some of Africa's most vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities. While technical solutions such as off-grid technologies and national grid extensions are available, the critical barrier remains a lack of sufficient financing to scale these solutions effectively. Public and private financial institutions at the regional and national levels play a decisive role in unlocking these solutions, offering market-specific expertise, reducing exposure to foreign exchange volatility, and supporting innovative business models by providing much-needed capital and long-term resources.

This AFD & GEAPP initiative will directly address this financing gap by equipping those African financial institutions with the necessary technical, financial, legal, environmental, and social support to strengthen their financial readiness, improve portfolio screening, enhance due diligence capabilities, and support the analysis of portfolio emissions. With these tools, PDBs will be better able to back bankable projects that generate sustainable development in the countries where they operate. 

AFD Group’s long-term expertise towards public and private finance institutions is at the heart of this collaboration. Support to local financial systems to finance a climate resilient economy represent 25% of AFD Group activity worldwide. In particular, AFD Group has been a pioneer in supporting banks to finance energy access in Africa combining (i) financial approach to provide local partner banks with long-term loans and (ii) technical approach to support and boost the finance market for green investments. In particular, AFD Group successfully launched the Sunref program in 2006 to give companies and local banks the resources to seize opportunities out of the ecological transition (energy efficiency, renewable energy, etc.). AFD Group also launched in 2018 the TFSC (Transforming Financial Systems for Climate) program with the Green Climate Fund in 16 African countries aiming to support financial institutions in financing adaptation and mitigation projects, for a total amount of USD 650 M as of today. 

After announcing a EUR 1 bn commitment by 2030 in support of Mission 300 agenda in Dar es Salaam last month, this collaboration allows AFD Group to pursue its work in strengthening local financial systems while mobilizing key stakeholders on its side. 

“Through national PDBs and local private banks, we have a unique opportunity to accelerate energy access in Africa by strengthening the capacity of local financial institutions to participate in the objectives of Mission 300. Our partnership with GEAPP and this new initiative, leveraging both philanthropic and institutional funding, proves that FiCS is an ideal platform to support cross-fertilizing partnerships between public development banks and other stakeholders committed to sustainable solutions” said Rémy Rioux, Chief Executive Officer of AFD Group.

“GEAPP is working with AFD Group to pool resources and invest in innovations that will help unlock more funding for Africa’s energy access projects," said Woochong Um, Chief Executive Officer of GEAPP. "This is a demonstration of the power of radical collaboration to achieve the Mission 300 goal of connecting 300 million Africans by 2030 is driving us to uncover new solutions, extend the pipeline of commercially viable projects, and create jobs, skills, and better livelihoods in areas where electricity access remains a challenge."

This initiative directly supports the goals of Mission 300, National Energy Compacts (NECs), and UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), which aims to ensure universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. It will also help foster public-private-philanthropic partnerships, which are essential for project development in emerging markets, and will stimulate new value chains and cutting-edge technologies in the energy sector, including distributed renewable energy systems and electric cooking solutions.

The collaboration between GEAPP and AFD Group highlights the strategic role that Africa’s public and private financial institutions play in advancing renewable energy access across the continent. By leveraging local expertise, reducing foreign exchange exposure, and fostering innovation, this new collaboration aims to unlock significant financing for energy access solutions and contribute to achieving the broader goals of Mission 300, Agenda 2030, and SDG7.

ENDS

About Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP)

The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) is an alliance of philanthropy, governments, technology, policy, and financing partners. Our common mission is to enable emerging and developed economies to shift to a clean energy, pro-growth model that accelerates universal energy access and inclusive economic growth while supporting the global community to meet critical climate goals during the next decade. As an Alliance, we aim to reduce 4 gigatons of future carbon emissions, expand clean energy access to one billion people, and enable 150 million new jobs. With philanthropic partners the IKEA Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and Bezos Earth Fund, GEAPP works to build the enabling environment, capacity, and market conditions for private sector solutions, catalyze new business models through innovation and entrepreneurship, and deploy high-risk capital to encourage private sector solutions and assist just transition solutions. For more information, please visit www.energyalliance.org and follow us on Twitter at @EnergyAlliance.

Media Contact:

Eric Gay, Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), media@energyalliance.org

About AFD Group

AFD Group finances and drives the transition to a fairer, safer and more resilient world, working with its partners to support communities all over the world. Drawing on the complementary strengths of its entities – Agence Française de Développement for public financing, Proparco for responsible private investment, and Expertise France for technical expertise – the Group is ideally positioned to meet all sustainable development challenges.

Working in over 160 countries, including France’s Overseas Territories and Departments, the Group adapts its operations to the realities on the ground, actively supporting local initiatives. With over 4,000 projects, whose objectives are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), AFD Group works on behalf of the French people, together with all stakeholders committed to economic development and the preservation of common goods: climate, biodiversity, peace, gender equality and global health. Working by your side, toward a world in common.

Media Contact:

Sophie Noel, Agence française de développement (AFD Group), noels@afd.fr