Dear EEP Africa companies, community and friends,
We are writing to you in an unprecedented period of disruption; the pace of daily change due to coronavirus spread is truly daunting. We do not know the full impact or duration of this crisis, but we do know that many of the early-stage, clean-energy SMEs and startups in the EEP Africa portfolio are likely to face new and unexpected risks to business viability in the weeks and months ahead.
We wanted to take this moment and reach out with some reassurance from the Nordic Development Fund (NDF) and the EEP Africa team to our portfolio companies and our partners. We are fully operational and committed to continuing to provide active support to you in the coming weeks and months.
We are working from home, of course, like so many of you, but have team in place in Helsinki, Nairobi and Pretoria. To the companies in the portfolio, EEP Africa is built to support your work. Please maintain active communication. We want to hear how the coronavirus is impacting your operations and strategy. We are committed to working with you to identify ways in which we can help.
We are also actively looking to shift as many activities as possible online in order to continue to provide value during this time. Stay tuned to our newsletter, website and social media channels. We will be communicating more about upcoming webinars, online training, business development support opportunities and remote networking events in the coming weeks and months.
Unfortunately, like so many others and with an eye on protecting the health and safety of our team and community, we are also cancelling all upcoming live events, including our next Investor Forum which had been planned for 11 May in Cape Town in connection with the African Utility Week.
We are, however, working actively toward a series of live events and knowledge product launches aimed at our community in the second half of this year, including:
- Investor Forums and Knowledge Events
- Market analysis on the latest call for proposals, trending technologies and business models focused on circular economy and productive use (thanks to the more than 350 companies that applied!)
- Insights on coronavirus survival strategies we are seeing among our portfolio companies
- Clean Energy and Climate Adaptation Study
We will be sharing more information as we know and learn more about this challenging situation. We also welcome suggestions for additional steps we can take to provide support to the clean energy sector in Southern and East Africa during this time. Please be in touch at info@eepafrica.org.
With best wishes,
The EEP Africa team
