Investment Committee Approves 16 New Clean Energy Projects
October 24, 2025 News
A total of EUR 6.4 million has been allocated to 16 clean energy projects across 10 countries in in Southern and Eastern Africa. The new portfolio features several productive use of renewable energy and mobility businesses, with additional projects in power generation and clean cooking.
The decisions were made during the Investment Committee’s meeting in Nairobi on 24–25 September 2025. The committee consists of at least three members, typically appointed by the donors to the fund. The approved portfolio is geographically balanced with nine of the grantees coming from Southern Africa. The meeting was followed by site visits to two grantees to see the impact of EEP Africa funding on the ground.
"This year’s Call for Proposals, once again, demonstrated the instrumental role that EEP Africa plays in supporting the early-stage development and commercialisation of locally driven solutions and business models. As the clean energy sector in Southern and Eastern Africa continues to face both persistent and emerging challenges, EEP Africa remains steadfast in its commitment to advancing collective efforts through the financing of innovative, scalable, and high-impact projects. In this context, I am pleased to welcome this year’s new cohort of companies to the EEP Africa portfolio and wish them every success as they work to accelerate clean energy transition across the region."- Isabel Leroux, Program Manager at the Nordic Development Fund (NDF)
The new portfolio is technologically diverse featuring solutions on productive use of renewable energy and mobility, power generation, clean cooking, residential electricity access, mini-grids and energy efficiency and storage. Most of the projects are pilots, with some scale-up and replication projects. One project is conducting a feasibility study.
“EEP Africa, its project partners, and the Swiss international cooperation share a unified commitment to expanding access to affordable and sustainable renewable energy. Through combined public and private investment, we aim to foster environmentally responsible development that also reaches disadvantaged communities. The Investment Committee once again reviewed a strong portfolio of high-quality proposals and has carefully selected those most closely aligned with EEP Africa’s strategic objectives. I extend my best wishes to all project teams as they advance excellence and best practices in clean energy across Africa.”- Cyprien Hauser, Programme Manager at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)
The 2025 Call for Proposals attracted significant interest, receiving 625 applications from companies registered in 38 countries with projects targeting all 17 EEP Africa countries. From these, 356 applications passed the eligibility check. 40 applicants were long-listed and interviewed leading to a shortlist of 23 projects that submitted a full proposal. Finally, investment committee approved 16 grantees. Further insights and observations from this call for proposals, and a presentation of the new grantees will be published once contracting has been completed.
“This year, the EEP Africa Investment Committee met in Nairobi to review 23 shortlisted proposals originating from 11 of the 17 EEP Africa target countries. These proposals reflect a rich diversity of innovative solutions to the region’s social, environmental and economic challenges — particularly in clean energy, mobility, and productive energy uses. The selected companies demonstrate strong potential for impact, growth, and scalability. Congratulations to all the grantees!” - Matts Weurlander, Counsellor, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland/Embassy of Finland in Nairobi
After the two-day meeting, the investment committee visited two EEP Africa grantees, Knights & Apps and Feion Green Ventures.
Feion Green Ventures is providing E-cookers to public schools across Kenya. The cookers range from 50 litres to 500 litres. The E-Cookers are equipped with smart meters that monitor temperatures and allow Feion to track electricity usage for each E-cooker.
During this visit, the EEP Africa team witnessed a demonstration of an E-cooker deployed at Peter Kariuki Secondary School in Kabati. The Feion team introduced the school to the team, during which the head principal shared why the school purchased the E-cooker and what that means for the school. The head principal, together with Feion, also walked the EEP Africa team through their current kitchen, where they use firewood to prepare their meals, to the new E-cooker, where the team observed the cooking process and tested the food being prepared.
Knights & Apps is providing transport as a service through leasing four-wheel electric vehicles and deploying solar-assisted charging infrastructure in strategic locations across Nairobi, Kenya. The charging stations serve taxi and private electric vehicle drivers.
During this visit, the EEP Africa team saw part of the fleet of 29 electric vehicles that Knights & Apps has procured for deployment as well as the solar-assisted charging station at The Great Jubilee Centre, Nairobi. The Knights & Apps team also walked the EEP Africa team through their EV fleet management platform that Knights & Apps has developed which provides useful information on vehicle and driver performance, vehicle usage patterns and maintenance, needs to optimise fleet utilisation operational efficiency, and customer service improvement.
The Energy and Environment Partnership Trust Fund (EEP Africa) is a clean energy financing facility hosted and managed by the Nordic Development Fund (NDF) with funding from Austria, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, NDF, Norway, and Switzerland. EEP Africa provides risk tolerant early-stage grant financing for locally driven innovative clean energy projects and businesses in Southern and Eastern Africa. Since 2010, EEP Africa has committed more than EUR 107 million to over 350 pioneering projects, creating over 12,800 jobs, improving energy access for more than 5.2 million people, and avoiding 2 million tonnes of CO2e.
