Multinational - LEAF Risk Sharing Facility with the African Guarantee Fund (AFDB-P-Z1-FF0-037)

Regions
  • Africa
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Countries
  • Ethiopia
  • Ghana
  • Guinea
  • Kenya
  • Nigeria
  • Tunisia
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
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."
Voting Date
Jun 29, 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
African Guarantee Fund (AGF)
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Energy
  • Industry and Trade
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Guarantee
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 13.94 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)
$ 267.00 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 @ AFDB website

Updated in EWS Jul 30, 2026

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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.

The LEAF Risk Sharing Facility (“LEAF RSF” or the “Facility”) is a USD 100m counter-guarantee facility to the African Guarantee Fund (“AGF”) aimed at supporting access to finance for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the decentralised renewable energy space (“DRE”) that offer solar home systems (SHS), green mini-grids (GMG) and captive commercial/industrial solutions (C&I). The proposal is for the Bank to contribute with USD 52m Partial Credit Guarantee (PCG) to the facility while the Green Climate Fund (GCF) – in context of the Leveraging Energy Access Finance Framework (LEAF) – contributes with USD 48 million PCG. The facility is expected to catalyse a minimum of USD 267 million in local currency financing from AGF’s Partner Financial Institutions (“PFIs”) for DRE projects and companies over a 5-year investment period. LEAF is an AfDB programme in collaboration with the GCF that extends concessional credit enhancement and debt instruments to Decentralized and Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) companies. This project primarily contributes to climate mitigation results. As such, 100% of the total approved amount is attributed as climate finance, of which 100% is dedicated to mitigation.

LEAF RSF expects to facilitate funding for c. 160 companies in LEAF countries, out of which circa 30%.

The LEAF Programme supports the development of DRE in six countries Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Tunisia, Guinea and Ethiopia. The LEAF RSF is similar to the Bank’s Affirmative Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) Risk Sharing Mechanism (AFAWA RSM) Initiative, in collaboration with AGF where in the Bank and other donors provide counter-guarantees for PFIs’ portfolios of loans to women-led or women- owned businesses.

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.

Environmental Category: [3] Low Risk

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

A counter-guarantee facility to the African Guarantee Fund (“AGF”).

The proposal is for the Bank to contribute with USD 52m Partial Credit Guarantee (PCG) to the facility while the Green Climate Fund (GCF) –in context of the Leveraging Energy Access Finance Framework (LEAF) –contributes with USD 48 million PCG. The facility is expected to catalyze a minimum of USD 267 million in local currency financing from AGF’s Partner Financial Institutions (“PFIs”) for DRE projects and companies over a 5-year investment period.

Financial Instrument: Guarantee
Commitments (UA): 10,548,046
Conversion Rate USD (2023-06-29): 1,32154
Commitments (USD): 13,939,664.71

Financial Intermediary
A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.
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.

The African Guarantee Fund is a non-bank financial institution that helps small and medium-sized businesses in Africa get loans by sharing the financial risk with local banks. It was set up in 2011 by the African Development Bank along with other international governments.


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.

Name: Elsbeth Aliene KONING
Email: e.koning@afdb.org

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 AfDBs 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