The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has approved an $11.3 million pilot facility that turns corporate climate spending into upfront capital for mini-grid developers working in some of Africa’s most conflict-affected and energy-poor communities, introducing what the bank describes as a first-of-its-kind financing instrument for the sector.
The AfDB’s Board of Directors approved a $5.65 million reimbursable grant from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) to pilot the Peace Renewable Energy Certificate (P-REC) Aggregation Facility. Co-financed with the Nordic Development Fund (NDF), which committed an equivalent $5.65 million, the total facility of $11.3 million will be managed by Camco Clean Energy and Energy Peace Partners, the United States-registered non-profit that developed the P-REC label.
Unlike standard corporate renewable certificates, P-RECs originate exclusively from small-scale mini-grids in conflict-affected and underserved communities, enabling multinational companies to link sustainability spending directly to measurable social impact. Under the mechanism, mini-grid developers sign long-term purchase agreements with the facility and receive upfront cash in exchange for the rights to future certificate revenues, giving them access to working capital before their projects begin generating income.
The facility will then sell those certificates to international corporate buyers, creating a channel for hard-currency financing to flow back into fragile markets where access to commercial capital remains extremely limited. The model targets 14 frontier countries across Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sierra Leone, Ethiopia and Nigeria.
The project is expected to deliver around 240,000 new electricity connections and 71 megawatts of installed renewable capacity, bringing first-time access to electricity to approximately 856,000 people. Half of the beneficiaries are expected to be women.
João Duarte Cunha, Manager of the Renewable Energy Funds Division and SEFA at the AfDB, said lack of access to capital for rural electrification remained one of the biggest barriers to universal energy access, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected states. “This is the kind of market-making needed to advance Mission 300 objectives,” he said, referring to the joint AfDB and World Bank initiative to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030.
Satu Santala, Managing Director of the Nordic Development Fund, said the partnership reflected a commitment to bringing small-scale, off-grid renewable energy to communities with no, limited or disrupted energy access, while strengthening Nordic climate leadership through innovation and shared responsibility.
Geoff Sinclair, Chief Executive Officer of Camco, said the facility would deliver low-cost, non-dilutive capital to energy access projects in fragile states, boosting jobs, opportunities and living standards in communities that have historically been bypassed by conventional financing. Sherwin Das, Managing Director of Energy Peace Partners, said the model was designed to convert corporate climate ambition into upfront capital for developers who would otherwise struggle to close their projects in high-risk environments.
The facility introduces a structure where the instrument serves both a climate finance function for global corporations and a development finance function for communities at the margins of Africa’s electrification drive, a dual role that AfDB officials said could prove replicable well beyond the pilot phase.
