Hydrobox Infrastructures SEZ Limited (FMO-63102)

Countries
  • Kenya
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
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
Oct 30, 2024
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
Hydrobox Infrastructures SEZ Ltd
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Energy
  • Hydropower
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 7.00 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.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ FMO website

Updated in EWS Jul 28, 2025

Disclosed by Bank Jan 29, 2024

Contribute Information
Can you contribute information about this project?
Contact the EWS Team

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 the Bank’s website, the FMO loan will serve for the financing of a hydropower mini-grid portfolio in rural Kenya, as part of a larger facility with ElectriFi, which will provide a USD2 MLN senior debt facility. The portfolio will consist of eight hydro power plants forming five mini grids totalling 2.3MW of which two interconnected plants are already online.

This investment aims at providing 100% renewable energy access to households and businesses in rural Kenya. Lack of proper energy access to households and businesses continues to hold back social and economic development, especially in rural Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). FMO is additional in addressing the financing gap: the mini-grids and Energy Services Company ("ESCo") sectors are severely underserviced due to being too early stage for commercial funding in SSA, and still reliant on grants and DFI funding. Also, FMO can provide a tenor of 10-12 years, which is not available in the market.

Early Warning System Project Analysis
For a project with severe or irreversible impacts to local community and natural resources, the Early Warning System Team may conduct a thorough analysis regarding its potential impacts to human and environmental rights.

This is a category B+ project, due to risks related to the Construction Phase and potential impacts on communities. The individual hydro power projects are in micro/mini hydro category and come with small footprints. Two projects have been realised and six more are planned. Key risks are: developers' relatively limited experience with DFI standards, project environmental and social impact assessments, stakeholder support and perspectives, hydrology and climate change, competition on water (users), land take, connections to houses and businesses (transmission line), typical Construction Phase risks (like labour, OHS, workers camp, workers grievances, sub-contractor management, noise, dust, traffic, job seekers/influx management, community consultation and grievances), biodiversity and E-flow, cumulative impacts and river basin management and operational risks including flow management. Relevant IFC PS: all 1-8 except PS7 on Indigenous People, as confirmed by DD.

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

Funding: AEF-I

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.

Hydrobox Infrastructures SEZ Ltd is a hydropower plant and mini-grid developer focused on developing small run-of river hydro mini-grids in Kenya under the Anchor, Business & Household Customer ("ABC") model. Under this model, c. 70% of the generation will be sold to commercial and industrial clients through long-term USD contracts.

Private Actor 1 Private Actor 1 Role Private Actor 1 Sector Relation Private Actor 2 Private Actor 2 Role Private Actor 2 Sector
- - - - Hydrobox Infrastructures SEZ Ltd Client -

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.

https://hydrobox.africa/

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

As part of FMO's ex-ante disclosure (disclosure of transactions before contracting), you can send requests or questions for additional information to: disclosure@fmo.nl

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF FMO

Communities who believe they will be negatively affected by a project funded by the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) may be able to file a complaint with the Independent Complaints Mechanism, which is the joint independent accountability mechanism of the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) and the German Investment Corporation (KfW). A complaint can be filed in writing, by email, post, or online. The complaint can be filed in English or any other language of the complainant. The Independent Complaints Mechanism is comprised of a three-member Independent Expert Panel and it can provide either problem-solving, compliance review or both, in either order. Additional information about this accountability mechanism, including a guide and template for filing a complaint, can be found at: https://www.fmo.nl/independent-complaints-mechanism

How it works

How it works