Online Reporter
Business Reporter
A major Euro 50 million (US$59 million) agreement between GreenCo, Impact Fund Denmark (IFDK) and the European Commission is set to unlock massive investment in renewable energy across Southern Africa.
GreenCo is a renewable energy trader that buys electricity from solar and wind generators to sell across Southern Africa.
Operating in Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa and Namibia, it supplies power to national utilities, private businesses and industrial users.
It also actively trades electricity within the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) to help balance regional energy demand.
Backed by the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+), the deal offers a critical payment guarantee, making it safer for private companies to build and finance new power plants.
The €50 million guarantee strengthens GreenCo’s finances, addressing the region’s challenge of lacking reliable, long-term electricity buyers.
This security is expected to unlock over 500MW of new renewable energy, helping to end power shortages and speed up the move to green energy.
The guarantee underpins GreenCo’s ability to meet long-term payment obligations to independent power producers (IPPs) across sub-Saharan Africa, including all countries of GreenCo’s current operations.
It directly tackles a major hurdle for energy investment in Africa: the lack of financially stable, long-term power buyers.
By boosting GreenCo’s financial standing, the structure encourages private investors to fund projects in markets previously dismissed as too risky despite their high electricity demand.
“This guarantee is not just about GreenCo-it is about proving that African power markets can work without sovereign guarantees,” said Ms Cathy Oxby, GreenCo’s chief commercial officer and co-founder.
“By using guarantees to unlock private investment rather than replace it, we can accelerate the energy transition while diversifying risk and leveraging flexibility to deliver innovative solutions to our clients.”
