By KENNEDY MUPESENI –
THE African Development Bank (AfDB)’s fund portfolio for renewable energies in Africa increased by 10 per cent to US$200 million in the last five years.
According to the 2014 report launched by the bank on Monday, the portfolio size multiplied by 10 during the last five years and was now worth more than $200 million.
Most project funding has been implemented by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through AfDB since 2008.
The report said the relatively young portfolio had 28 projects over 30 countries on the continent, according to the 2014.
The bank’s catalytic role in financing Africa’s development contributes significantly to synergies and coordination among development partners and the private sector.
The AfDB states that the $ 218 million AfDB-GEF portfolio had leveraged more than $ 1.27 billion in co-financing.
The report highlights the diversity of the portfolio: around three-quarters of the total amount is focused on climate change mitigation projects with other projects in land degradation, biodiversity, international waters and others multi-sectoral.
The bank has mobilised funding from three GEF managed trust funds, the GEF Trust Fund, the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), and the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF).
After the release of the report, AfDB manager of environment and climate change Kurt Lonsway, said on a global scale Africa was not flagged as a major emitter of the green house gases.
To improve the efficiency of the AfDB and GEF project implementation, some challenges related to the length of the project preparation process, institutional arrangements, and sustainability or reporting were also identified in the report. The report further highlighted two key projects which started to be implemented in 2014, the African Climate Technology Finance Centre and network and the African Renewable Energy Fund (AREF).
The US$130 million AREF was launched in March 2014 with the Sustainable Energy Fund and the Global Environment Facility as lead sponsors, each contributing to equity investment.
AREF has so far reviewed 131 deals for a potential renewable energy capacity of 4,000 megawatts.
