EEP Africa Call for Proposals will launch on 16 February 2026. Stay tuned!
The indicative timeline for 2026 application process:
- 16 February : Call for Proposals opens
- 16 March 2PM EAT: EoI submission deadline
- 24 April: Communication to longlisted applicants
- 28 April: Webinar for longlisted applicants
- 4 - 22 May: Pitch interviews
- 29 May: Communication to shortlisted applicants
- 2 June: Webinar for shortlisted applicants
- 27 July 2PM EAT: Full Proposal submission deadline
- End of September: Final Investment Committee decision
- October onwards: Enhanced due diligence and contracting proces
Who can apply?
Private companies, start-ups and social enterprises from any country in the world 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 need to have strong local presence in the country(-ies) of application. The applicant should be based in the country, be locally led, or be an international company with strong local partnerships.
All applicants must be registered legal entities for at least six (6) months prior to the Expression of Interest opening date.
EEP Africa does not fund NGOs, Charities, Research Institutions, or government institutions (e.g., government ministries, UN agencies and national/provincial/district departments). However, these types of organisations can serve as project partners.
All applicants must meet the eligibility criteria defined in the CfP2025 Application Guidelines.
What type of projects is EEP Africa looking for?
EEP Africa supports early-stage, locally driven innovative clean energy projects that are in active development. All applications need to demonstrate a clear need and additionality for EEP Africa financing.
Funding is provided to feasibility studies, pilot, replication or scale-up projects.
All project activities need to have a clear path to profitability with reasonable expectation of further investment and sustainable commercialisation.
EEP Africa is technology agnostic as long as solutions are based on renewable energy sources (solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, hydro, other renewable energy sources) or energy efficiency.
The projects should fall under at least one of the following groups of technologies:
- Residential electricity access
- Productive uses of energy (commercial and/or institutional)
- Mini grids (AC or DC)
- Power generation
- Clean cooking (residential and/or institutional, stoves and/or fuels)
- Mobility (electric and/or fuels)
- Energy efficiency & storage
What kind of financing is available?
Applicants can apply for grants and repayable grants between EUR 200,000 — 500,000. The minimum required co-financing is 30-50% of the total project budget depending on the project phase and company maturity. Furthermore, the Investment Committee may determine additional repayability of funds.
Please read the CfP2025 Application Guidelines and the Project Implementation Manual for more concrete guidance on financing.
Feasibility studies, scale-up and replication projects
Pilot projects by early-stage companies
Project by mature companies & over EUR500,000
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 invite longlisted applicants for pitching sessions. Based on the pitch interviews, applicants are shortlisted to proceed to the full proposal stage. For an indicative timeline, please scroll down.
Please carefully read the CfP2025 Application Guidelines before beginning the application process. The guidelines and other documents listed below provide detailed information on eligibility and evaluation criteria.
How to submit your application?
IMPORTANT! Please note that all proposals must be submitted through the EEP Africa online application platform. Proposals that are sent through e-mail or social media channels 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 EoI application form and process are to be sent no later than Friday, 6 March 2026.
If you encounter problems when registering on 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 in such a case:
To access the application in EEP Africa fund, 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 the EEP Africa Fund.
Register to Apply
Register to SmartME to begin working on your online application
