cKers Finance (DFC-2021-CKERSFINANCE)

Regions
  • South Asia
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Countries
  • India
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Active
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
C
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Borrower
Electronica Finance Limited, cKers Finance Private Limited
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Climate and Environment
  • Energy
  • Finance
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Guarantee, Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 12.50 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Loan Amount (USD)
$ 12.50 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 41.66 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Bank Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ DFC website

Updated in EWS May 8, 2022

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to DFC documents, the proposed investment is a multiparty loan portfolio guaranty intended to strengthen each guaranteed party’s ability to provide loans to micro, small and medium enterprises, residential consumers, or low-income community-based organizations in India that are investing in or providing distributed renewable energy generation solutions, such as rooftop solar solutions, with the ultimate goal of reducing carbon emissions, thereby creating a positive impact on the environment.

The objectives of the project are to support deployment of off-grid solutions in India largely for rooftop solar systems. It also seeks to support India's renewable energy targets of 175 GW of installed renewable capacity by 2022 which includes a target of 100 GW of solar power. Out of the total installed capacity for solar power 40 GW will be met with off-grid, solar solutions. These goals will be met through direct lending to businesses, as well as to providers of solar solutions.

In addition, this transaction is consistent with the goals outlined in the USAID Country Development Cooperation Strategy for India, which calls for use of renewable energy as a means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the energy capacity.

The Project has been reviewed against DFC’s 2020 Environmental and Social Policies and Procedures manual (“ESPP”) and has been determined to be categorically eligible. DFC loan portfolio guaranties for the expansion of lending to micro, small, and medium enterprises are screened as a Category C for environmental and social assessment. These downstream investments are expected to result in minimal adverse environmental and social impacts.

 

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Unlike many other development finance institutions, DFC does not currently have an access to information policy.

Under the United States Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), DFC is obliged to respond to reasonably formulated requests for Agency records. However, DFC may apply exemptions from release to certain types of information and may charge fees in responding to requests. DFC has a designated FOIA officer who is trained in how to respond to requests and implement the law. You can learn more about filing a FOIA request at: https://www.dfc.gov/foia

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF THE UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION (DFC)

The Office of Accountability is an independent office that addresses complaints about environmental or social issues related to DFC-supported projects. The office provides communities an opportunity to have concerns independently reviewed and addressed. If you submit a complaint to the Office of Accountability, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a problem solving dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the DFC complied with its policies to prevent environmental, social, human rights, and labor harms.

You can find more information about the Office of Accountability at: https://www.dfc.gov/who-we-are/office-accountability

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How it works