Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa

Bringing clean and affordable off-grid energy access to Sub-Saharan Africa.

Clean energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa

Over 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa live today without access to electricity. For most of these people, connection to the grid is not likely to happen for decades, or even longer.

The Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa (BGFA) is a facility established in 2019 as an expansion and scaling up of Sweden’s innovative, results-based financing initiative in Zambia. It aims to reduce this energy gap by stimulating and accelerating new business models to incentivise the private sector to offer affordable and clean energy access at scale to people living in rural and peri-urban areas.

The BGFA programme aims to establish up to 1.44 million energy connections by 2028, benefiting more than 6.5 million people in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia.

Read more about the BGFA programme and the funded projects at www.beyondthegrid.africa/

Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa

The BGFA contributes to the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

How to apply for funding

The BGFA programme is based on Call for Proposals inviting private sector companies to apply for funding for a certain country. So far five founding rounds have been announced between 2020-2023. Follow www.beyondthegrid.africa/funding-rounds/ for more information on ongoing Calls.

Eligible entities

Private companies working in the off-grid sector, and which have established or soon will establish a local business entity in a BGFA programme country.

Project implementation partners

Nefco is implementing the BGFA programme with support from its project implementation partners NIRAS and Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP).

Contributors

The Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa is funded by Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Germany. PowerAfrica, an initiative administered by USAID, is providing an in-kind technical assistance contribution.

Contact BGFA

Visit the BGFA website for more information: www.beyondthegrid.africa/

For general enquiries, please contact the BGFA team by email: bgfa@nefco.int

Kari Hämekoski Senior Programme Manager
Finnish, English, Swedish
Dennis Hamro-Drotz Senior Programme Manager (on leave)
Swedish, Finnish, English, French, Spanish
Tina Möller Programme Manager
Swedish, Finnish, English

Impact Report 2022

In 2022, the Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa contracted 13 companies in 4 Sub-Saharan countries with EUR 25 million with the potential to provide clean energy access for 4.8 million people in rural areas of Burkina Faso, Liberia, Uganda and Zambia.

Want to know more?

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