Private-sector energy companies in 16 African countries can apply for support under the ASCENT Project Preparation Facility (PPF) Private Sector Support Window, which provides technical assistance and grants to help businesses prepare projects for commercial and catalytic financing.
The USD 25 million ASCENT PPF was established to address a major financing gap in energy-access markets: promising projects often struggle to attract investment because they lack the resources needed for proper project preparation.
The facility is funded by the World Bank Group, hosted within the COMESA Secretariat‘s Project Implementation Unit, and managed by Cygnum Capital.
What Support Is Available?
Eligible companies can access:
- Technical assistance from a prequalified roster of experts
- Support with feasibility studies and financial modelling
- Investment-readiness and transaction advisory
- Legal structuring
- Digitalisation and credit-risk management
- ESG and environmental and social due diligence
- Carbon finance
- Productive use of energy
- Grants of USD 50,000 to USD 200,000 for eligible project preparation and business development activities
Grant funding is disbursed against agreed milestones and must be directly linked to a financing transaction. Larger grant requests may be considered subject to enhanced due diligence.
Where appropriate expertise is available through the PPF’s expert roster, technical assistance will be prioritised over grant funding.
Who Can Apply?
The support window is open to private-sector distributed renewable energy (DRE) and clean cooking companies registered in one of the 16 eligible ASCENT countries: Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Applicants must also:
- Have operated for at least three years
- Have paying customers
- Have annual revenue of at least USD 250,000 for solar home systems (SHS) or USD 150,000 for minigrids, clean cooking and productive use of energy (PUE)
- Have an experienced management team, including a full-time CEO and at least one senior functional leader
- Be actively engaging investors or lenders around a concrete financing transaction
- Demonstrate at least 20% co-financing, either in cash or verifiable in-kind contributions. In-kind contributions cannot exceed 10% of the total project budget.