Multinational - Crossboundary Energy Access Platform II - Productive use of energy technical assistance (AFDB-P-Z1-FA0-227)

Regions
  • Africa
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • African Development Bank (AFDB)
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
U
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
Sep 14, 2023
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
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Energy
  • Technical Cooperation
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Advisory Services, Grant
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 1.01 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.
Grant Amount (USD)
$ 1.01 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)
$ 2.02 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 @ AFDB website

Updated in EWS Mar 5, 2024

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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 by the AfDB, this technical assistance is part of the CrossBoundary Energy Access Platform (CBEA Platform), which is a US$150 million, pan-African project finance facility specifically for solar mini-grids that invests equity and debt into bankable mini-grid portfolios. This innovative finance model aims to address key barriers to scaling mini-grid investments by aggregating diversified portfolios of mini-grid assets into a bankable project finance facility that can then attract long-term commercial capital at scale. CBEA Platform blends equity and concessional mezzanine debt at the platform level which is then invested as equity and shareholder loans into mini-grid projects (AssetCos). The mini-grids are constructed, operated, and maintained by partner mini-grid developers under long-term agreements.

The project will benefit rural households and businesses. CBEAP targets creating 250,000 first-time electricity connections for rural households and businesses, benefitting c. 1.2 million people, installing 17.7MW of solar capacity and displacing diesel, leading to an emission reduction of over 540k tCO2e.

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 on the compay's website, the CrossBoundary Group was founded in 2011 with a focus on unlocking capital for underserved markets. It provides transaction and strategy advisory for investors, fund managers, companies, donors, and governments to mobilize capital into underserved markets.
CrossBoundary Access is a distributed electric utility that raises capital for portfolios of solar mini-grids that it designs, builds, and manages.

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.

AfDB Team Leader:

Benjamin Curnier
Email: b.curnier@afdb.org

Client - CrossBoundary Group:

Address: Sky Park Plaza, Woodvale Close, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya
Email: contact@crossboundary.com
Website: https://crossboundary.com/

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit an information request for project information at: https://www.afdb.org/en/disclosure-and-access-to-information/request-for-documents. Under the AfDBÕs Disclosure and Access to Information policy, if you feel the Bank has omitted to publish information or your request for information is unreasonably denied, you can file an appeal at https://www.afdb.org/en/disclosure-and-access-to-information/appeals-process 

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF AfDB

The Independent Review Mechanism (IRM), which is administered by the Compliance Review and Mediation Unit (CRMU), is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who have been or are likely to be adversely affected by an African Development Bank (AfDB)-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the IRM, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a dispute resolution dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the AfDB complied with its policies to prevent environmental and social harms. You can submit a complaint electronically by emailing crmuinfo@afdb.org, b.kargougou@afdb.org, b.fall@afdb.org, and/or s.toure@afdb.org. You can learn more about the IRM and how to file a complaint at: https://www.afdb.org/en/independent-review-mechanism/ 

How it works

How it works