Climate and impact fund manager Camco has unveiled a new technical assistance facility (TAF) to accelerate the growth of Sub-Saharan African markets for renewable energy and energy access.

Camco is developing the $250m REPP 2 fund to invest in the African grid of the future and the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) building it. 

The private debt fund is structured as a blended finance vehicle to leverage public, private and commercial funding to invest in small-scale and decentralised renewable energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular focus on supporting least developed countries.

The new accelerator will play a critical role in achieving REPP 2’s goal of delivering significant climate, economic and gender impacts while ensuring sustainable returns for investors by addressing both the financial and non-financial barriers that are currently impairing project development and slowing down investments.

REPP 2’s dedicated TAF is part of a new market development focus by Camco that complements its investment activities to deliver broader transformational impacts.

The REPP 2 TAF is launched with support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) – a cornerstone funder, who has committed $5m to the facility’s $10m target.

Halvor Heggenes, Senior Advisor at Norad, said: “REPP 2 is an important part of Norad’s efforts to attract more commercial investments to renewable energy development in Africa. One of the big gaps that we work to close is the number of companies and projects that are considered investable by private financiers, and this is precisely what the technical assistance facility will address. We are excited to work with Camco to ultimately increase energy generation and access on the ground in Africa.”

The REPP 2 TAF has three pillars:

Pillar 1: SME growth and project development support: Early-stage project preparation funding to de-risk project development and capacity building activities to make the sector more inclusive and accelerate growth. This is expected to lead to more skilled and experienced local SMEs and project developers.

Pillar 2: Gender equity. Targeted support to earlier-stage female entrepreneurs who are not yet ready for REPP 2 financing and SMEs that offer products or services specifically designed to address the needs of female customers. This supports REPP 2's comprehensive strategy for achieving 2X alignment.

Pillar 3: Enabling environment and knowledge mobilisation. Targeted advocacy initiatives, strengthened public-private dialogue and knowledge sharing to improve the enabling environment for renewable energy development and investment.

Over its lifetime, REPP 2 aims to develop 330MW of new capacity, resulting in over 12.7 million tCO2e emission reductions. 

This will provide clean energy access to more than 7.7 million people and enhance the resilience of about one million beneficiaries.

Ieva Indriunaite, Policy and Partnerships Manager, Camco, said: “The support the REPP 2 TAF will provide is critical to the scaling up of companies in this sector and thereby developing a vibrant renewable energy market in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“Norad understands everything we want to achieve through REPP 2 and the critical role of the TAF in supporting SMEs and the just development of the decentralised renewable energy sector in Africa. We are extremely thankful for its catalytic funding.”