📋 Tender Overview
The Hardest to Reach Expansion Fund is an "impact first" investment fund aiming to raise USD 180 million from public and private investors to provide concessional loans to finance the operaitons of manufacturers and last-mile distributions of Solar Home Systems and Minigrids in 16 Least-Developped Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (50% of which are SDC priority countries). By investing into the first-loss share class of this fund, Switzerland de-risks other investors and mobilizes additional capital towards achieving SDGs 7&13, contributing to providing 54 million people in LDCs with clean, off-grid solar energy products.
Topic Period Budget
Climate change and environment
Inclusive economic Development
Renewable energy generation
Business support & economic inclusion
Employment creation
01.11.2025 - 31.10.2035
CHF 6’630’000
The project in brief
Background In 2020, 733 million people were still living without access to affordable, clean electricity, of which 298 million people were in nascent off-grid solar (OGS) markets where there is little commercial OGS activity. Approximately 70% of this number have the ability to pay but live in areas deemed too remote or too risky to be served by traditional grid extensions and business as usual approaches in these markets. There are multiple barriers that prevent access to alternative forms of energy access, such as OGS, namely, a funding gap, as the OGS market for the most deprived customers is considered highly risky. Potential customers are offen amongst the poorest in a country, and few of the have financial track records, making credit underwriting difficult. Taken together, these barriers lead to a lack of access to capital, in turn leading to OGS companies being underfunded, and to markets stagnating, rather than growing rapidly in response to the clear needs of the rural populations where energy access is lowest.
Objectives Increased access to patient, impact- linked working capital and technical assistance for clean energy compagnies operating in 16 Least-Developed Countries in Sub-saharan Africa, thereby scaling access to affordable clean energy for low-income populations in these countries, contribution to SDG 5, SDG 8, SDG 7 and SDG 13. By scaling access to affordable clean energy to 10.8 million housholds, H2R aims at impacting 54 million people, of which 75% are expected to access solar energy for the first time, with a specific focus on women. A total of 101 megawatts of decentralized renewables capacity will be installed, saving 3.7 million tons of CO2 emissions, and creating 11'000 clean energy jobs in the process.
Target groups People, particulary women, living below the international World Bank poverty line of USD 3.20 per person per day, who lack access to clean energy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Burundi, Zambia, Malwi, Mozambique, Lesotho, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Niger, Chad and Somalia.
Medium-term outcomes 1. Low
