Andy Bindea, CEO of Sigora International, spoke at the ‘ElectriFI 1st Round Invitation Results’ event on the sidelines of the Marrakech COP22 UN Climate Change Conference on Wednesday 16 November 2016.
The ‘Electrification Financing Initiative’ (ElectriFI) aims to generate business opportunities in rural electrification by supporting the private sector. The side event brought together the successful ElectriFI awarded developers and investors from the first call for applications. Sigora Haiti’s ‘Haiti North West – Phase I’ will electrify 136,000 people with clean reliable and fairly priced energy is one of 5 projects of 290 selected to move forward.
A significant barrier to investments in access to energy in developing countries is the lack of access to seed, mid- and long-term capital matching business cycles. In immature market conditions, this is aggravated by the reluctance of commercial banks to provide suitable lending conditions that respond to the needs of investors and by the existing capacity limitations regarding structuring and bringing projects to financial close.
The ElectriFI initiative supports electrification investments that will lead to new and improved connections, with strong features for scalability. The initiative aims to achieve intensive mobilization of the private sector in the business of increasing or improving access to modern, affordable and sustainable energy services for populations living principally in rural, underserved areas as well as areas affected by an unreliable power supply. At the same time, it seeks to encourage more actions in the field of renewable energy in general with emphasis on decentralized sustainable energy solutions and with potential to attract additional financing to ElectriFI clients.
Also speaking at the event were Frederick van den Bosch CEO of ElectriFI; Anil Raj Managing Director of OMC India; Roberto Ridolfi, Director for Sustainable Growth and Development at DG Development and Cooperation; Irene Muloni, Uganda Minister of Energy and Mineral Development; Christopher Yaluma, Zambia Minister of Mines, Energy and Water Development; Andrew Herscowitz, Coordinator for President Obama’s Power Africa Initiative; and Soren Andreasen, General Manager European Development Finance Institutions.
“We are incredibly excited to connect and start long-term collaborations with electrification entrepreneurs from around the world, thus congratulate Anil and OMC on the phenomenal work they are doing in India, if we are to achieve universal energy access in our lifetime we need more entrepreneurs like Mr. Raj and the electrification industry working together towards this common goal” says Andy Bindea.
The event was organized by the European Commission (International Cooperation and Development), EDFI Management Company, and the USAID Power Africa initiative.
For more information see the EU Programme of Side Events Marrakech Climate Change Conference