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Energise Africa 2022 - a year of impact
As we reach the last weeks of 2022, we wanted to take the opportunity to thank all of our investors, partners and supporters that have made the year another successful and impactful one for Energise Africa!
Despite this being a year of challenging market conditions, we have successfully closed 28 investment bond offers on the platform, raising finance to support sustainable businesses in emerging markets, helping to bridge the climate funding gap and creating a positive impact on people and the planet!2022 saw Energise Africa start to widen our investment offering, giving our investors the opportunity to diversify their investment portfolios to include other impactful sectors such as E-mobility, microfinance and agriculture supply that solves some of the problems faced by smallholder rural farmers in Kenya. We’ve been delighted with the positive response to these investment opportunities and are looking forward to introducing more new organisations to the platform in 2023.
Of course, a lot of our investee organisations offer solar energy access and we’re very proud that in 2022, Energise Africa investors enabled more than 8,500 households to benefit from clean and affordable energy. Having access to solar electricity not only benefits the lives of people and the local economy, but by reducing reliance on fossil fuels, it also saves thousands of tonnes of carbon from entering the atmosphere each year.
Our projects have also enabled 16 commercial and industrial premises to install solar energy panels and recently, via 2 bond offers for a new organisation, Aptech, we’ve helped a market in Kampala install solar energy as well as delivering solar power to the United Nations office in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Another new organisation on the platform this year is Bisedge which is expanding its green logistics offering to blue chip clients in Nigeria, creating a positive impact on the economy and boosting employment. Energise Africa investors have enabled Bisedge to purchase 20 new electric forklifts, creating 20 quality jobs and saving 2,480 tonnes of CO2 emissions by replacing diesel forklifts. Investors are also helping empower female workers in this mainly male-dominated industry as Bisedge is aiming to employ women for 30% of their operations jobs. You can read more about how this has changed the life of Bisedge employee, Bukes Saliu in our blog post here.
And this year, funding from Energise Africa investors has enabled microfinance organisation, Guilgal to provide microfinance loans to around 160 clients. Guigal’s finance services are vital to entrepreneurs and small businesses in the Democratic Republic of Congo who do not have access to traditional financial services to help them expand and grow.
Guilgal's mission is to provide financial and non-financial services to low-income individuals, groups and businesses in the DRC, especially small traders, promoters of bankable projects and farmers in order to contribute significantly and sustainably to the improvement of their living conditions, while preserving the environment. Guilgal has introduced products with an environmental benefit and is seeking to develop this portfolio. These are Green Energy Credit, providing financing for the installation of solar panels and related equipment for income-generating use or as home improvement financing; and, Green Agri Credit: providing technical assistance alongside Agri loans to train clients on clean techniques and inputs for the environment.
We’re also happy to have made more than £ 5.4 million in repayments to our investors this year. And BBOXX, a UK-based company championing Africa’s economic development, has now successfully completed its repayments to Energise Africa investors who provided more than £2 million in enabling finance, which has been vital to their ongoing success. Read more.
We’re already looking forward to making 2023 even bigger and better, growing our community of impact investors and supporting even more impactful businesses that are accelerating the achievements of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. We hope you will continue to support us and join us on the journey.
Many thanks again for your support this year and have a very happy festive season!
FromThe Energise Africa Team