Kayode Tokede
InfraCredit, yesterday announced the credit enhancement of Darway Coast Nigeria Limited’s green debt issue, under a co-financing arrangement with the £10 million Climate Finance Blending Facility funded by the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), an initial transaction under InfraCredit’s Clean Energy Funding Programme.
The Programme seeks to aggregate, de-risk and unlock domestic institutional investments to support eligible clean energy projects in Nigeria to contribute towards meeting the country’s universal electrification goal by 2030 and the SDG 7 target of ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all, whilst putting the country on a path to achieve net zero emissions by 2060.
Speaking on the transaction, the Managing Director of Darway Coast Nigeria Limited, Mr. Henry Ureh in a statement said, “For mini-grid developers, access to long term affordable local currency finance is critical for sustainability and scale, which is why we are extremely excited about the possibility of participating in such a milestone transaction.
“That mini-grid developers like us can now access patient green capital in naira from domestic institutional investors, to construct off-grid infrastructure for renewable energy access to unelectrified rural communities in Nigeria for productive use, is unprecedented.”
Also, the CEO of InfraCredit, Chinua Azubike, in a statement said, “According to Nigeria’s Integrated Energy Planning Tool, it is estimated that up to $16.4 billion of funding will be required to finance off-grid infrastructure for solar mini-grids and stand-alone solar systems that will electrify 621,000 unserved communities not connected to the grid, which represents 98% of the identified settlements without energy access.
“However, Nigerian domestic institutional investors assets under management in local currency, is estimated at over $35 billion, but less than one per cent is currently invested as domestic credit to the private sector due to perceived risks and limited quality projects.”
The UK Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos, Ben Llewellyn-Jones said, “We are very pleased that this innovative UK-funded blended finance facility, managed by InfraCredit, has supported the first green-certified local currency debt issue for off-grid solar in Nigeria.
