40% of people in rural areas in Kenya do not have access to electricity and continue to rely on kerosene for their main source of lighting. The project is being delivered by InfraCo Africa and RVE.SOL with grant funding from Agence Française de Développement’s (AFD) GMG II Kenya Mini-grid Facility programme (funded by EU-AITF).

Role of PIDG: InfraCo Africa provided 4.2m of equity complemented by a technical assistance grant of $235k to undertake technical studies and support a growing business.

Direct Impact on People

SDG: 7.1 + 7.2 + 6.1 – Access to affordable and reliable renewable energy and water.
Expected impact: 7k new connections are estimated to improve access to 50k low-income consumers. 50-70% are expected to live on or below the international poverty line and 70% will be first time users.

Direct Impact on Planet

SDG: 13 – Climate change mitigation.
Expected impact: Avoid/reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the displacement of diesel gensets.

Indirect Impacts (wider economy)

SDG: 8.5 – Achieve full and productive employment.
Expected impact: 700 SME businesses are expected to benefit, especially those that are highly dependent on electricity for business operations or suffer from reliability issues.

Market Transformation

Challenge: Considerable disparity between urban and rural access to energy and economic opportunities.
Channel: Leverage the provision mini-grids to pilot the delivery of water, street lighting and appliance finance to rural communities and demonstrate the commercial viability of combining services.
Outcome: Similar models being adopted by other private sector operators to facilitate rural economic development.

Gender Lens Investing

Women will continue to make up >30% of the workforce and senior management team.

Climate Risk and Resilience Assessment

Transition: Paris Aligned
Physical: Risks considered on mini-grid sites -enhancements added to HSES systems (e.g., wildfire/heat stress training).

Mobilisation

Mobilised $3.24m equity from foreign sources (the partner).