With the additional year end contribution from Finland, EEP Africa increases funds under management to EUR 42 million. With an additional EUR 1.9 million commitment to EEP Africa, announced during the EEP Africa end-of-year Supervisory Board meeting in Arusha, Tanzania, Finland increased its commitment to clean energy access and sustainable and inclusive green growth in the 15 EEP Africa countries in Southern and East Africa. This complements an additional EUR 12 million contribution to the Fund approved by NDF’s own Board of Directors in June 2019. Representing Finland at the meeting in Arusha, Juha Savolainen, Director of the Unit for Southern and Western Africa at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, said,
“Finland has been a founder and proud supporter of EEP Africa since 2010. The Finnish government has a strong emphasis on supporting Africa, climate, clean energy, women and jobs and sees each of these themes effectively addressed through the EEP Africa financing platform. We are proud to be supporting the implementation of projects identified under the recent call-for-proposals with its theme of women leaders in the clean energy economy and look forward to seeing the theme of circular economy, with its clear linkages to Finnish technology potential, developed under EEP Africa in 2020.”
Speaking on behalf of NDF, Leena Klossner, Vice President for Operations and Deputy Managing Director, said
“Finland is a founding shareholder of NDF and the founding partner in EEP Africa. This is such an important partnership for us, acknowledging our Nordic identity and validating the direction of travel we are taking with this facility. EEP Africa is now fully integrated into the NDF climate finance portfolio, and we see so many synergies already taking shape between EEP Africa and our other financing activities and partners. We welcome this additional demonstration of trust and support from Finland and look forward to continuing to deliver climate impact, clean energy access and green growth on the ground in our partner countries.”
The end-of-year announcement from Finland was a strong indication from a founding funding partner that EEP Africa is moving in a positive direction and demonstrating results. Key achievements for EEP Africa in 2019 included running a competitive call-for-proposal cycle themed around women in leadership in the clean energy sector, headlining two investor events in Cape Town and Nairobi, and launching the pilot phase of EEP Catalyst, the new EEP Africa loan financing window. The call-for-proposals resulted in Investment Committee selection in September 2019 of 19 new clean energy startups, early stage companies and projects, 11 of which are led by women CEOs.