CB Energy Access (IFC-48547)

Regions
  • Africa
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Countries
  • Congo, Democratic Republic of
  • Madagascar
  • Nigeria
  • Zambia
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • International Finance Corporation (IFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Proposed
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
B
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."
Voting Date
Jun 27, 2025
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
CrossBoundary Energy Access Platform (CrossBoundary Group)
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Energy
  • Infrastructure
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Equity
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 5.00 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)
$ 150.00 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
Other Related Projects
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Jun 10, 2025

Disclosed by Bank May 27, 2025

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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.

As stated on the project disclosure page, the IFC is proposing to make an equity investment of US$ 7.5 million in Preference B Shares in the CrossBoundary Access (“Access” or the “Platform”) for its 2024-2026 capital expenditure (capex) plan. This will be accompanied by an equivalent amount of US$ 7.5 million of concessional equity from Blended Finance in the same share class.

Access is a platform using infrastructure project finance principles to build a distributed utility by constructing and acquiring portfolios of bankable and shovel-ready, networked and distributed renewable technologies, consisting of solar hybrid mini-grids (MGs) and other adjacent technologies (i.e. battery swapping hubs, mesh grids, other) in partnership with leading developers across Sub-Saharan Africa.
The objective of the Platform is to create a distributed utility at scale for off-grid rural households and businesses.

Access will use IFC’s funds to:

(i) support its capex plan, in line with the planned construction schedules of assets and agreements signed with the selected development partners (“Developers”);
(ii) build and acquire new projects in line with the company’s mandate.

The proposed MGs have similar layouts and involve the installation and operation of ground-mounted solar modules with a capacity of 50-450 kWp (but future pipeline sites may be larger) and associated components (battery energy storage system (BESS), inverters, cables, hubs, energy management systems and diesel generator systems used for backup during low solar generation days).

Project sites are selected on greenfield land, on the outskirts of target communities’ settlements, and typically span 1 to 2 acres. Electricity is delivered via low voltage lines to customers located tens to hundreds of meters away; medium voltage may be used for larger sites or for customer groups located further away from the generation unit.
The battery hubs target off-grid low-income villages and consist of standalone solar system of 5-10 kW per hub powering 300 batteries of [45Wh] each available for daily rentals to customers in the community.

Access’ existing assets include project development and construction agreements with a Developer for a first batch of (15) projects in Nigeria, of which 5 are already operational, while the remaining 10 are under commissioning. Access is considering additional near-term pipeline development agreements, which involve several MG projects in collaboration with a MG Developer in Nigeria to serve approximately 20,000 connections, and battery swapping hubs (“Power Hubs”) to serve around 60,000 consumers. Further opportunities are under consideration with developers in Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia and other African countries. Developers may also construct (via Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract if necessary) and operate the projects under contract with Access.                                               

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.
Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

As stated by the IFC, the CBEA platform is managed by CrossBoundary Energy Access Management (CBEAM), which is part of the CrossBoundary Group – a consultancy and investment firm founded in 2011 with a mission to unlock commercial capital and support private sector-led growth in underserved markets.

CBEA is currently owned by ARCH Africa Renewable Power Fund (ARCH) (75%) and CBEAM (25%). IFC will become a shareholder of CBEA through this investment.

Private Actor 1 Private Actor 1 Role Private Actor 1 Sector Relation Private Actor 2 Private Actor 2 Role Private Actor 2 Sector
- - - - CrossBoundary Energy Holdings Client Energy

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.

General IFC Inquiries - IFC Communications:

Address: 2121 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20433
Telephone: +1 202-473-3800
Fax: +1 202-974-4384

Client - CrossBoundary Group:

Kymberly Bays - Director of Global Communications
Phone: +254 (0) 701 380 433
Email: Kymberly.Bays@crossboundary.com
Address: Skypark Plaza, 11th Floor, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya
Website: https://crossboundary.com/

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit a request for information disclosure at: https://disclosures.ifc.org/#/inquiries

If you believe that your request for information from IFC has been unreasonably denied, or that this Policy has been interpreted incorrectly, you can submit a complaint at the link above to IFC's Access to Information Policy Advisor, who reports directly to IFC's Executive Vice President.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC/MIGA

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org

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How it works