Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa

The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) is a multi-donor trust fund administered by the African Development Bank - anchored in a commitment of USD 95 million by the Governments of Denmark, the United States and the Norway - to support small- and medium-scale Renewable Energy (RE) and Energy Efficiency (EE) projects in Africa. In many African countries, smaller clean/renewable energy projects are potentially viable from a commercial perspective, but the initial development costs often prevent these projects from accessing necessary financing. SEFA is founded on the premise that reliable, clean and affordable energy can contribute to strong African economies and can have a positive impact in creating employment opportunities across the continent.

The development objective of SEFA is to support sustainable private-sector led economic growth in African countries through the efficient utilization of presently untapped clean energy resources. SEFA has been designed to operate under three financing windows: project preparation, equity investments and enabling environment support.

(i) - Project Preparation:

This window provides cost-sharing grants and technical assistance to private project developers/promoters to facilitate pre-investment activities for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Grant funding will target development activities from feasibility up to financial closure for projects with total capital investments in the range of USD 30 million – 200 million.