The market for Productive Use of Renewable Energy (PURE), particularly in agriculture is vast and requires significant investment to realize its full potential. However, in the broader spectrum of renewable energy financing, only 2% of the $2.8trillion global renewable energy investments cascaded down to Africa over the last two decades. International financiers, especially development finance institutions, have been the key players in PURE investments in Africa. Local financial institutions are structured to provide short term financing, limiting their ability to meet the needs of the long-term nature of PURE projects. Patient capital is particularly important for end users who often grapple with inadequate financing and affordability challenges due to the high upfront costs of PURE equipment.

Our working paper titled Unlocking Local Private Capital in Financing the Productive Use of Renewable Energy (PURE) Sector – A Look at East Africa Local Financial Institutions (LFIs) aims to understand the current financing landscape for Productive Use of Renewable Energy by local financing institutions in  Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania. Some of the overarching questions that we investigated sought to understand whether local financing institutions are currently funding PURE, and if so, what is their focus area by sector, for example, agriculture; how much lending they have channeled into the sector compared to other sectors; their experiences related to challenges and barriers to financing PURE; and what actions are necessary to unlock and accelerate the flow of local financing to the PURE sector.

Webinar Objectives:

  1. To launch the working paper and highlight key research findings on local financing institutions’ involvement in financing PURE.
  2. To share cross-country learnings in East Africa and increase awareness of avenues and mechanisms for PURE financing.
  3. To serve as a call to action among key stakeholders, including local financing institutions, development finance institutions and development partners on the deployment of innovative interventions to unlock finance for PURE.

Speakers:

  • Benson Ireri, Africa Lead, Energy Access, World Resources Institute (Moderator)
  • Fred Chumo, Head of Governance, Middle East Bank, Kenya
  • Winnie Terry, Executive Director, Tanzania Association of Microfinance Institutions
  • Alex Kanyonga, Energy Specialist, World Bank