Financing

EEP Africa provides early stage grant and catalytic financing to innovative clean energy projects, technologies and business models in 15 countries across Southern and East Africa. EEP Africa funding is channeled through two windows: Innovation and Catalyst.

EEP Innovation

Early-stage grant financing for projects in active development through competitive, open calls for proposals. There have been 16 calls since 2010.

Who Can Apply

During an open call, EEP Africa invites applications from early stage off-grid and on-grid clean energy projects in active development phase in one or more of the target countries. Projects are evaluated in terms of Concept Innovation, Development Impact, and Business Model & Financial Sustainability. Additional evaluation criteria are applied in themed calls. In recent calls, grants and repayable grants between EUR 200,000 and EUR 1 million have been awarded, with a minimum co-financing requirement of 30%.

 

Applicants for funding must meet the eligibility criteria defined in the Application Guidelines for that particular call. All proposed projects should be aligned with national development planning, including the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), of the country of operations. Applications should also be aligned with EEP Africa’s cross-cutting objectives: climate change, poverty reduction, development effectiveness, inclusive development, gender equality and human rights.

ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS: Companies (including start-ups), Non-profit Organisations, Social Enterprises

 

TECHNOLOGIES: Biofuel (liquid), Biogas, Biomass (solid), Cookstoves, Energy Efficiency, Geothermal, Hydropower, Solar PV, Solar Thermal, Wind Power, other RE/EE technology or combination of technologies

 

Countries: Botswana, Burundi, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

 

PROJECT TYPES: Feasibility Studies or Pilot, Demonstration, Replication, or Scale-up Projects

Learn more about how to apply from the video announcing our most recent Call for Proposals

Recent Calls

Green Growth Call (2020)

An open call focused on productive use of energy and circular economy. Twenty six projects were approved for financing out of 357 applications. The projects began implementation in 2021.

Gender-themed Call (2019)

A gender-themed call focused on creating economic and leadership opportunities for women. Eighteen projects were contracted from the 285 applications submitted. The projects began implementation in 2020.

Open Call (2018)

A general call that was the first funding round under the leadership of NDF. Twenty eight projects approved for financing out of 530 applications. The project began implementation in 2019.

EEP Catalyst

 

Follow-on debt financing for successful companies from the grant portfolio to scale-up commercially viable solutions. This financing window is in a pilot phase.

 

REDAVIA

Read More

 

SunCulture

Read More

SDC Logo