2024 Call for Proposals

Monitor Application

Access the SmartME platform to monitor the progress of your application

The 2024 call is now closed.

The deadline for all applications was 15 March 2024 at 13:00 (Helsinki time). If you missed the deadline we encourage you to apply next year. You can get more information about our next call by subscribing to our newsletter or following us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. If you submitted an application you can monitor the progress of your application on the SmartME platform (link at the top of the page).

EEP Africa invites companies, start-ups and social enterprises to submit applications for innovative early-stage clean energy projects in active development in Southern and Eastern Africa. All applications need to demonstrate a clear need and additionality for EEP Africa financing.

Who can apply?

Private companies, start-ups and social enterprises from any country with early-stage projects in one or more of the EEP Africa target countries (Botswana, Burundi, Comoros, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) are welcome to apply. All applicants must be registered legal entities for at least six (6) months prior to the EoI opening date. Applicants can be registered in any country but need to demonstrate local engagement. Applications from women entrepreneurs and locally-led organisations are strongly encouraged.

All applicants must meet the eligibility criteria defined in the CfP 2024 Application Guidelines.

Financing

Applicants can apply for grants and repayable grants between EUR 200,000 —1,000,000. The minimum required co-financing is 30-50% of the total project budget depending on the project phase and company maturity. Please read the CfP 2024 Application Guidelines and Project Implementation Manual for more concrete guidance on financing.

How to apply?

The application process is a two-stage process; Expression of Interest (EoI) and a detailed Full Proposal. After the EOI has been submitted, EEP Africa will hold a virtual bootcamp followed by pitching sessions for those applicants that are longlisted. Based on the pitch-interviews, applicants are shortlisted to proceed to full proposal stage.

Please carefully read the Application Guidelines before beginning the application process. The guidelines and other documents listed below provide detailed information on eligibility and evaluation criteria.

Please note that all proposals must be submitted through the EEP Africa online application platform. Proposals that are sent through e-mail will not be considered.

Please register for the EEP Africa online application platform. During the application process, you can save your edits and continue to work on your application by signing in with the same account. Remember to save your edits each time you work on it. Once you have fully completed your application (Expression of interest), submit it to EEP Africa by pressing ‘Submit’. After submission, changes to the Expression of Interest are no longer possible.

Once you have started the application process, we strongly recommend that you use the in-platform support function to communicate any questions or problems you may have. If this is not possible, please send your enquiries to cfp@eepafrica.org. Any questions or clarifications regarding the application form and process are to be sent no later than Friday, 8 March 2024.

If you encounter problems when registering into SmartME, it might be that you already have a SmartME account. Such situations may arise, if you have applied for other funding where they also use the SmartME system. Here are the instructions on how to proceed:

To access the application in EEP Africa fund, kindly log into SmartME with your existing credentials (email and password) directly via EEP Africa webpage, or by navigating to the dedicated SmartME link: https://smartme.adalia.fi/login/EEP-Africa. Email and password should be entered in the top-right corner of the screen, next to the “Sign in” button. There is no need to register if you already have a SmartME account. If you do not see the “Email” and “Password” fields in the top-right corner and instead you see only “Sign out” button, please click on the button to sign out of the system, and once again navigate to the URL provided above for EEP-Africa fund.

Indicative Timeline

19 February 2024: Call for Proposals opens
15 March 2024 at 13:00 (Helsinki time, GMT +2): EoI submission deadline
15 May 2024: Communication to longlisted applicants
28 May 2024: Bootcamp for longlisted applicants
3 June – 26 June 2024: Pitching sessions
1 July 2024: Communication to shortlisted applicants
3 July 2024: Bootcamp for shortlisted applicants
12 August 2024 at 13:00 (Helsinki time, GMT +2): Full Proposal submission
1-2 October 2024: Final Investment Committee decision
October – December 2024: Contracting period
2025-2027: Project implementation (max 24 months)