BRITISH INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT

Richard Charlton, Head of Infrastructure Equity (Africa & Pakistan), BII

A lack of adequate financing for tackling climate change in Africa has become dire and is “choking” the continent, African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina said recently. How can investors like BII bridge the gap?

ment is the UK government’s primary strategy prioritises investments that lay the foundations for net zero emissions an ideal partner for African businesses that will be the driving force for lifting

Are there enough risk mitigation instruments in place in Africa to ensure that investors have the confidence to enter the market?

Investing and operating in Africa comes risk mitigation tools developed by institutions, including the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency and the African Development Bank, are some of many instruments within our products as standalone tools cannot substitute for sustainable underlying

We see some encouraging trends of of procuring power projects, such as the commercial and industrial sector growth in South Africa, which can also

Viability gap funding for new technologies is also often required alongside risk mitigation products to create an environment where

We committed $7bn and mobilised strategy period, and as part of our current strategy, we have set a target making us one of the largest climate the gap and provide more productive, sustainable and inclusive solutions that assistance facility, we supported the age unit and share learnings within the

As the opportunities of green finance become clearer to countries in the wake of the COP process, is it becoming easier to invest in renewables? and encouraging theme is that more and more countries in the continent are procuring or have plans to procure solar step change compared to 10 years ago and has been a growing trend alongside in renewables – which BII is committed to developing solutions to overcome – several countries’ electricity sectors, grids requiring strengthening to absorb more intermittent power and the need to match new supply to associated economic growth so that power systems in Africa are evolving, and in South ZAR600m commitment with Norfund owned and managed renewables renewable capacity in South Africa over and construction of new renewables rates, currency devaluation, debt availability, some electricity sectors are undergoing periods of stress, which has delayed the process of projects winds, the fundamental need for power and further investment in mistic that today’s challenges will be What are the most promising untapped priority energy sectors that Africa can address immediately? Beyond our growing portfolio of solar and wind projects, BII has also been at nent, which must be developed as part

To what extent has the difficult global economic environment hit green project financing?

In hydroelectricity, we backed with plant, which will add 30% to the grid’s to concentrated solar power in South project supports the continent’s largest

How has creating different platforms – such as Globeleq, Gridworks etc – helped BII to diversify its investments and support green growth?

After 75 years of successfully investing tify gaps and establish companies that have reversed the trend up to that decreases in renewables capital costs: this has created a backlog of projects in Africa (as in other markets where

We have a joint venture with the Aga power in East Africa and committed few years in a joint venture with Scatec and Norfund, the largest investment to construct a pipeline of new projects, largest power plant (Mpatamanga

In geothermal, Globeleq has recently the pioneering Menengai geothermal projects in Kenya, while we are lenders

Globeleq has doubled its capacity tion since it took over control of the company in 2015 alongside Norfund, It has the necessary ability to bring new projects to market and innovate plant in Benban solar park in Egypt and recently signed a green hydrogen developed and is constructing the the transition to renewables over

At the same time, transmission and distribution are key to improving energy access but are one of the main tion of new energy generation capacity