Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) has been awarded the prestigious “Middle East & Africa Deal of the Year” at the just concluded Project Finance International (PFI) 2023 awards ceremony in London.
The PFI awards, one of the oldest and most globally recognized project finance publications, which honours achievement and ingenuity in the global project finance market, recognised AFC’s successful acquisition of Lekela Power B.V. (Lekela), Africa’s largest wind platform, alongside its partners – Infinity WorldWide, the principal sponsors of Infinity Power Holdings (IPH), Masdar, the renewables energy company of the Government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Commenting on the award, Sameh Shenouda, AFC’s Chief Investment Officer, said, “We are honoured and grateful to receive this prestigious award on behalf of AFC and all our partners. It is a testament to our commitment to address Africa’s energy crisis in a sustainable and climate responsible manner. Our investment in Infinity and acquisition of Lekela Power is one of our many transformational projects that accelerates Africa’s instrumental role in the global energy transition, whilst contributing significantly to value addition, job creation, industrialisation and economic growth on the continent.”
The award was presented to AFC for its innovative financial structuring on the Lekela acquisition, where AFC deployed a suite of equity and quasi equity instruments for the investment.
Following the acquisition of Lekela, Infinity Power is now the largest renewable energy company in Africa. Today, IPH has 1.3 GW of operational solar and wind power projects in South Africa, Egypt, and Senegal, and an impressive 14GW project pipeline at various stages of development.
Through its operations, the company avoids more than 3.4 million tons of CO2 emissions per year, generates more than 4,000GWh of zero carbon energy and powers more than 1.2million homes. The company is a UN recognized sustainability climate leader, having been rated 1st of 672 global utilities on ESG by Sustainalytics in 2021. Over the next 4 years, Infinity Power plans to triple the generation capacity of its operations.
Since its creation in 2007, AFC has been prioritising closing Africa’s crippling energy deficit responsibly and efficiently, with development impact at the forefront of decision making. The Corporation has financed over 3,000MW of power generation and has current beneficial ownership interests in 1400MW, all of which is sourced from renewable energy. The successful close of the Lekela acquisition follows the Corporation lead development role in the recent landmark inauguration of Djibouti’s first-ever wind farm, advancing its stated ambition to become the first nation in Africa to rely entirely on renewable sources for electricity by 2035.