With more than USD 26.7 M raised by 8 projects in 2021, the Eastern Africa region was the most successful region in sub-Saharan Africa in raising investment.
Uganda and Kenya were particularly successful, with three financial closures in each country from businesses in the areas of solar, clean transport and waste-to-energy.
The region’s Country Coordinators engaged in a number of outreach events and placed a particular focus on clean cooking, resulting in an increase of applications from clean cooking projects. Most of these events, including Financing Clean Cooking Ventures in Africa and Carbon Financing for Clean Cooking Ventures, were organized in collaboration with the Clean Cooking Association for Kenya (CCAK). These events not only attracted entrepreneurs to apply for PFAN support, they resulted in a strengthened partnership with CCAK to jointly build clean cooking markets, promote the adoption of clean cooking technologies and teach entrepreneurs in the sector to overcome barriers.
This focus on bioenergy and clean cooking comes as a result of their critical importance in the energy mix for East African households and the historic difficulty in raising commercial investment for them. Through these regional initiatives, PFAN aims to familiarise investors with new business models and increase the flow of investment into these key sectors. In 2021, projects focusing on biomass, solar, clean transport, cooling and waste-to-energy reached financial closure in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
The Eastern Africa regional network also held two webinars focusing on climate adaptation, the first organized in collaboration with Kenya Climate Ventures (KCV) and the second with the Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA). With a total of 80 attendees, both webinars helped to increase interest in climate adaptation projects originated in the region.
Eastern Africa in 2021
$26,773,466
Total investment leveraged (USD)
Projects that reached financial closure
8
Clean energy capacity added (MW)
0.606
Total Advisors
31
Female Advisors
4
Locally-based Advisors (%)
97
Total number of projects supported
26
New partnerships established
3
Total number of projects supported by country
Technology area of new projects in the pipeline
Financial Closure Success Stories
Location
Ethiopia
Investment Amount
USD $200,000
Technology
Biomass
''Imagine a woman who uses a stove and gets paid $5 a year to use it! We are convinced it can change the world.''
Location
Uganda
Investment Amount
USD $15,950,000
Technology
Solar
''PFAN helped us to get honed, to prepare materials investors would be interested in. They pushed us a lot in terms of being able to engage at a variety of levels in the market, and being able to understand where the opportunity lies.''
Meet our Network in Eastern Africa
PFAN Advisor - Arnold Byarugaba
Arnold Byarugaba is a Private Financing Advisory Network (PFAN) Advisor and Country Coordinator based in Kampala, Uganda.
He has built and developed an exemplary professional career over the last 14 years with experience that spans across institutional and private fund management, investment banking and development finance working with various global organisations. Over this period, he has successfully supported several companies and entrepreneurs in East Africa with advisory support around business development for investment readiness coupled with investor matchmaking/fundraising. Further to this, he is passionate about the development of the Entrepreneurial ecosystem to catalyse business growth, particularly in Uganda.
Regional Coordinator - Wilfred Mworia
Wilfred started his career in enterprise software, working for several local and international software houses. With a keen interest in the transformative potential of entrepreneurship, he ventured out into tech enterprise for a number of years, after which he found he could have greater impact by enabling other entrepreneurs to thrive. He has since worked in various capacities providing business strategy and investment support to entrepreneurs.
Wilfred is PFAN’s Regional Coordinator in the Eastern Africa Region, where he works to grow investment towards clean energy ventures.
New Partners in 2021
Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA), Tanzania
Industry association
TAHA provides developmental services on Policy and Advocacy, Technical support (Agronomy, nutrition, Standards & Food safety and environmental compliance and protection), linkage & access to markets and linkage to financial services for horticultural practitioners across the value chain.
UNEP DTU Partnership (Temarin project), Kenya & Uganda
Research and advisory institution
UNEP DTU Partnership was established by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the UN Environment Programme and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in 1990 and currently provides research-based advisory services to assist developing countries deliver on the Paris Agreement and SDGs.
