Mobilizing Commercial Finance to Achieve Universal Energy Access Across sub-Saharan Africa

The Clean Energy Solutions Center, in partnership with United Nations Foundation’s Energy Access Practitioner Network, hosted this webinar on Mobilizing Commercial Finance to Achieve Universal Energy Access Across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Recent groundbreaking research by Catalyst Off-Grid Advisors and the Shell Foundation shows that the off-grid energy industry in Africa requires a massive increase in commercial investment. The competition among enterprises in the market is flourishing, and scalable solutions are emerging in a variety of geographies. Yet there remains a massive gap between available capital and the amount of financing required to scale up these businesses to serve the more than 125 million households in Africa that still lack access to modern energy services. According to this new research, the off-grid energy sector in Africa requires $32 billion of capital, including $1 billion of catalytic grant/blended capital, plus funding to address a $4 billion affordability gap for underserved populations that cannot afford entry-level systems. Please join panelists from Shell Foundation, Catalyst Off-Grid Advisors, GOGLA, and the UN Foundation to discuss this industry capital gap and potential solutions.

Presentations were followed by an interactive question-and-answer session with the audience.

Panelists for this webinar included:

• Jem Porcaro, Senior Director for Energy Access, United Nations Foundation
• Sam Parker, Director, Shell Foundation
• Johanna Diecker, Director of Policy, GOGLA
• Dan Murphy, Director, Catalyst Off-Grid Advisors.

For background information on this webinar, see the full SDG7 financing report.