IFU is investing EUR 10 million in Nithio’s FAIR Facility for Adaptation, Inclusion and Resilience. FAIR is expected to facilitate new or improved energy access for more than 160,000 people and support close to 7,000 small enterprises.
Nithio secured a €10 million investment from the Danish Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU) for its investment vehicle, FAIR—the Facility for Adaptation, Inclusion, and Resilience that provides finance for clean energy solutions to households and small enterprises in Africa.
Global warming has severe consequences in Africa, and despite the fact that the continent is the least climate resilient in the world, it only receives around 3 percent of global climate finance flows. Consequently, there is a strong need for increased financing to support the green transition and make people and businesses less vulnerable to climate change.
IFU’s investment will help close the financing gap and enable Nithio to accelerate its investments into companies that provide solar home systems and solar power appliances for productive use to households and small enterprises.
Solar-driven products such as lighting, communications, irrigation, and cooling have demonstrated tremendous impact on increasing resilience and enhancing the livelihood of households and smallholder farmers. For example, solar-driven water pumps, milling, and cooling improve food production and storage facilities as well as water supplies, reducing food insecurity and poverty. Additionally, the products provide people with the ability to work longer hours and more productively, thereby creating greater income stability.
The investment will have a significant impact and is expected to create new or improved energy access for more than 160,000 people and support close to 7,000 small enterprises. Total avoided CO2 emissions is estimated to be more than 500,000 metric tons.[1]
“There is a tremendous need for enabling access to clean energy that can assist underserved households and businesses in Africa to become more resilient to climate change and to provide them with opportunities for better living conditions without further increasing greenhouse gas emissions. This is what Nithio is doing, and we are very proud to support their effort.”
Henrik Henriksen, Investment Director at IFU.
FAIR is a blended finance, open-ended vehicle. IFU joins other mission-driven investors, including US DFC (US International Development Finance Corporation), EDFI-ElectriFI, FSD Africa Investments, the Schmidt Family Foundation, and Shell Foundation.
FAIR is innovative as it leverages Nithio’s AI-driven risk analytics models to standardize credit risk assessments and inform sustainable financing. This enables FAIR to fill a key market gap by lending not only to large international solar companies but also to small, local distributors that reach last-mile customers.
“Nithio is proud to partner with IFU, an organization that is strongly aligned with Nithio’s mission to build climate resilience through clean energy access in Africa in areas most impacted by climate change.”
Kate Steel, Nithio Co-Founder and CEO.
About Nithio
Nithio is a climate fintech platform; we make investments in clean energy companies and support investors in allocating capital to climate solutions. As an investment manager of FAIR, the Facility for Inclusion, Adaptation, and Resilience, Nithio finances companies that build climate resilience and support a just energy transition. Nithio also advises investors, banks, and grantmakers on allocating capital towards solutions that enable adaptation to climate change and improve energy access.
Learn more at www.nithio.com.
[1] In estimating the number of people with improved energy access, Nithio considered the number of financed systems, factoring in a discount provision for non-sales and accounting for the percentage of solar products that may not reach customers due to theft, damage, loss, non-adoption, etc. The estimate for support for small enterprises is derived from the number of financed systems and the percentage of off-grid solar customers utilizing products for income-generating activities at home. The CO2 emissions avoided calculation is an estimation over the total lifespan of a system sold.
Source: IFU