Sub-Saharan Africa

DFC loans are helping SA Taxi Impact Fund expand lending to black-owned and -led SMEs that operate minibus taxis across South Africa. These small buses provide affordable door-to-door transportation along fixed routes. SA Taxi’s business model integrates services such as repairs and refurbishments, insurance, and data analytics to help bolster the success of its borrowers.

DFC has invested $10 million in equity in Copia Global, Inc., a nine-year-old e-commerce startup, to help it expand its online retail model with an emphasis on reaching the mass market consumer in Africa. DFC’s equity investment helped mobilize over $40 million of additional third-party capital to support Copia’s growth.

DFC provided financing to Africa Data Centres Holdings Limited to support the development, expansion, and operation of seven data centers in South Africa, Kenya, and other DFC-eligible countries. This $300 million direct loan will unlock approximately 31.3 MW of IT load capacity in the next three years. The project is also expected to create over 100 direct formal jobs associated with developing the data centers.

DFC financing is supporting a 20 MW solar photovoltaic power plant and battery energy storage system developed by Golomoti JCM Solar Corporation Limited. As the first utility-scale plant in the region to use a battery storage system, the project is generating energy to the national grid for use by homes and businesses. Its capacity to store up to 10MW of energy will help reduce the country’s frequent blackouts.

DFC financing supports the expansion of Jibu, an award-winning business that helps local entrepreneurs establish franchises selling packaged drinking water. Jibu provides access to drinking water to underserved African communities in Rwanda and Uganda, as well as other markets across the continent. Jibu currently operates in seven African countries with over 195 franchises.

DFC has committed to provide financing to support the development of an 83.5 MW combined cycle thermal power plant, which will initially be fueled by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) before converting to liquefied natural gas (LNG), a cleaner and more energy-efficient fuel.

DFC political risk insurance is supporting DAI Global in a USAID-funded initiative with the Government of Zambia to reduce stunting by expanding access to nutrition, as well as water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). The program trains farmers to establish community gardens and improve production of vegetables and legumes, while forming nutrition-focused support groups for mothers of young children. It has also trained hundreds of government staff and volunteers to roll out WASH activities, including the construction of latrines and handwashing stations in 111 villages.

A loan to Lendable Inc. is supporting the creation of the Lendable Fintech Credit Fund I, which will provide loans to fin-tech companies across Africa and Asia. These fin-tech companies will use innovative technologies such as digital banks and mobile investment accounts to provide credit, working capital, remittances, and payment solutions to underserved customers and MSMEs in target countries.

DFC financing is helping WaterEquity, a nonprofit impact investor, provide loans to microfinance lenders to help communities in Asia, Latin America, and Africa invest in water and sanitation solutions. By mobilizing significant private investment, WaterEquity has financed more than 543,000 loans that have helped nearly three million people across nine developing countries access safe water or sanitation in their homes and communities by installing toilets, septic tanks, or connections to piped water. DFC’s financing will support additional lending through 2026 aiming to bring access to water or sanitation solutions to millions more low-income families around the world.

A DFC technical assistance grant is helping Ifria Cold Chain Development Co. conduct early-stage work on the development of two cold chain anchor warehouses in Agadir, Morocco and Dakar, Senegal.

A DFC loan is supporting the expansion of Africa Healthcare Network, the first dialysis chain in Sub-Saharan Africa focused on expanding access to affordable and quality care. Africa Healthcare Network will use the loan to improve dialysis care in existing hospitals in Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda, while establishing clinics to screen for kidney disease as well as registries for patients who are at risk.

A DFC loan guarantee will help Orabank Niger, the country’s eighth-largest bank, increase lending to SMEs in the agriculture, livestock, and food value chain sectors, which currently account for just one percent of the bank’s portfolio. The guarantee will also help the bank address demand for Islamic finance and deploy more digital financial services for remote farmers.

DFC financing is supporting the Energy Access Relief Fund, which is providing low-cost loans to viable off-grid energy providers that serve low-income communities across 50 countries in Africa and Asia but are facing liquidity challenges due to COVID. Energy Access Relief Fund is a collaboration of development institutions, donors, and impact investors including the Dutch development agency FMO, the U.K. development agency CDC Group, as well as the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Shell Foundation. The fund plans to deploy up to $100 million of financing to small and medium businesses providing a variety of off-grid energy solutions including solar home systems, clean cookstoves, and solar-powered irrigation.

DFC financing is helping Liberia’s oldest bank, International Bank of Liberia Ltd., increase lending to its growing base of SME clients. DFC’s commitment of $20 million in financing extends an existing partnership with the bank, which previously used $20 million in financing from DFC’s predecessor, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, to provide loans ranging from $500,000 to $3 million with tenors of up to three years to a group of SME borrowers in key industries including food value chains, logistics, and manufacturing.

A $9 million DFC loan is helping Ampersand, a young company headquartered in Kigali, Rwanda, build a fleet of electronic motorbikes in Rwanda and expand into Kenya to provide sustainable replacements to gas-powered motorcycle taxis.

DFC is providing a $3.3 million technical assistant grant to Fondation Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) to support development of a vaccine production hub that will serve Senegal and the other countries of West Africa. The project, which will also receive support from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the French development agency, AFD, and the European Investment Bank (EIB), will help address one of the greatest challenges of the pandemic by expanding vaccine manufacturing capacity on the continent that has the lowest vaccination rate in the world.

DFC financing to the Meridiam Infrastructure Africa Fund is supporting the Dakar Bus Rapid Transit project to expand mass transit in and around the city. The project will introduce more than 140 electric buses and construct new roads and garages for the fleet.

DFC is providing financing to the SEAF COVID-19 Global Gender Lens Emergency Loan Finance LLC, which is managed by the global private equity impact firm SEAF (Small Enterprise Assistance Funds). The facility is supporting Financial Access Commerce and Trade Services (FACTS), a company that specializes in providing short-term working capital to small and medium-sized businesses, agribusinesses, and emerging entrepreneurs in Kenya and Uganda.

DFC provided financing and reinsurance to support construction of the 100 MW Kipeto Wind Power Project, along with a 15-mile transmission line to connect to the national grid. The 100 MW plant, which began operations in January 2021, is the second-largest wind power project in Kenya and has the capacity to supply power to approximately 250,000 households, based on current energy use for typical families. Located in the Rift Valley about 70 miles south of Nairobi, the project is also situated to feed into Nairobi’s industrial hubs.

A $20 million loan to Kiva Refugee Investment Fund LLC will support microfinance lending to refugees, internally displaced persons, and impacted host populations in 13 countries.

DFC provided financing and political risk insurance to SunFunder’s Solar Energy Transformation Fund, which will be supporting a loan to finance the modernization and conversion of diesel-fueled telecommunications towers across the Central African Republic to run on solar power.

$100 million in financing is helping Africell expand affordable mobile voice and data services in The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and upgrade its network equipment to accommodate increased traffic. The World Bank estimates that a 10 percent increase in mobile phone technology coverage in developing countries will increase annual economic growth by 1.2 percent, and that a 10 percent increase in broadband penetration results in a 1.4 percent increase in annual economic growth in low and middle-income countries.

Financing through a Citi framework agreement is helping New York-based Gradian Health Systems, Inc. design, distribute and maintain medical equipment made for low-resource environments in Benin, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Gradian makes mechanical ventilators and anesthesia machines that are specifically designed for safe and effective use in challenging settings that have limited access to electricity and medical oxygen. The equipment is built with long-duration battery power, and designed to be easy-to-operate and to function in high-heat, humidity, or dust environments. Gradian also provides training on operating the equipment.

Financing to Medical Credit Fund is providing loans to clinics in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda, so that they can provide a higher level of care to a greater number of patients.

A $2 million loan is helping the Magrabi ICO Cameroon Eye Institute provide affordable surgery to thousands of patients. The financing to this project was structured as a Development Impact Bond (DIB), a pay-for-performance loan in which lenders earn higher returns when the hospital reaches more patients. During the project’s first year, the financing helped the hospital screen more than 50,000 patients and complete more than 2,300 cataract surgeries. Low income patients received the sight-saving surgery for free or at a subsidized rate, and the quality of surgeries exceeded World Health Organization standards with nearly 70 percent of surgeries achieving a good visual outcome on the day after surgery.

A DFC loan guaranty facility is helping Root Capital sustain livelihoods of more than one million farmers—more than half of them women—in 21 countries in Africa and Latin America.

Financing and political risk insurance supported ContourGlobal’s construction of the 86 MW Cap des Biches thermal power plant outside of Dakar, increasing the country’s energy supply. The combined-cycle plant was designed to run on heavy fuel oil or natural gas, when supply is available, and was built on the site of an existing diesel power plant in order to achieve cost efficiencies. Under the terms of the project, the country’s state-owned utility Senelec, entered a power purchase agreement with ContourGlobal.

Political risk insurance supports the work of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a relief agency that responds to humanitarian crises around the world. By protecting against losses resulting from forced abandonment or expropriation, this insurance enables IRC to support displaced people, provide emergency health and sanitation services, stem gender-based violence, and respond to disease outbreaks. IRC is working to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in regions with limited access to healthcare, by introducing telemedicine to provide healthcare remotely, delivering medicine to communities in quarantine, and educating people about disease prevention. DFC’s insurance supports this work in 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East including Georgia, Iraq, Niger, and Zimbabwe.

Political risk insurance is supporting a project to build, finance, operate, and maintain for 25 years a 46 MW biomass power plant along with a substation and a 350-meter transmission line connecting to the electricity grid. The plant, which will generate power from palm tree leaves and trunks, will be the country’s first large scale biomass plant feeding into the grid and the largest power plant fueled by agricultural waste in West Africa.

A $10 million loan will help FinLux Ellen Sarl distribute solar kits and appliances to individuals, schools, health clinics and small businesses in Chad, providing a reliable source of power to communities not connected to an electricity grid. FinLux solar equipment is based on a battery produced in the United States, and adapted for use in rural Sub-Saharan Africa. Because women comprise more than half the company’s workforce, the project also promotes women’s economic empowerment.

Financing has helped One Acre Fund support these very small farmers in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania, many who are based in hard-to-reach remote areas. One Acre Fund works with people in the community to provide seed and fertilizer on credit, together with training on best practices on growing and storing food.

Twiga, a six-year-old small business supported by $5 million in DFC financing, is working to build a stronger and more efficient food distribution system across Kenya. The company travels to farms in rural and often difficult-to-reach regions of the country to buy bananas, tomatoes, onions, and other produce. Twiga’s digital platform has connected 17,000 producers to 8,000 vendors to sell their goods in Nairobi. The business is also investing in cold storage to preserve food and in training to educate farmers on best practices for harvesting and packaging produce. By offering a convenient and reliable solution to challenges faced by farmers and vendors alike, Twiga is helping reduce food wastage and retail food prices while increasing incomes.

Financing is helping Dimagi Inc., a small technology business based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, support healthcare workers in South Africa with its open source mobile data management platform that facilitates data intake, patient monitoring, and COVID-19 contact tracing. The company’s technology allows healthcare workers to input data on individual patients, track their symptoms and healthcare visits and flag any areas of concern.

DFC is providing $50 million of debt financing to the Meridiam Africa Infrastructure Fund, which is investing in a variety of infrastructure projects. Meridiam’s investments include solar energy projects in Senegal and a geothermal project in Ethiopia, helping those countries grow and diversify their energy supply; a university hospital in Cote d’Ivoire to expand access to healthcare, an airport renovation in Madagascar to support the country’s tourism industry, and port development projects in Gabon and Mauritania to support trade.

Financing is helping Alistair Group, a small business based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, introduce a more efficient system for moving cargo. Alistair operates a fleet of hundreds of trucks that serve mining, oil and gas companies, as well as global relief organizations throughout Tanzania, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and South Africa. Alistair equips its trucks with GPS tracking, trains drivers extensively on safety and accident prevention, and maintains a zero-tolerance policy to bribery and corruption that often poses a hurdle to moving goods across borders. In addition to improving the quality and reliability of ground transportation across the region, the project has created hundreds of local jobs, while helping local businesses and relief organizations transport cargo.

Political risk insurance is supporting construction of a mineral and specialized bulk terminal port, which will advance economic growth by increasing the country’s ability to import and export goods. DFC is providing reinsurance to Chubb European Group SE, which is insuring Meridiam Africa Infrastructure Investments, which owns a 25 percent stake in the project.

Financing supported construction of the Luanda Medical Center, a private medical clinic in the country’s capital. The clinic delivers affordable and quality health services to people of all ages and income levels. By hiring highly qualified professionals and investing in X-ray, ultrasound, CT and MRI technologies, the medical center has dramatically increased diagnostic capabilities in Luanda. Today the medical center provides diagnostic services, screening, preventive care, maternal care and chronic disease treatment to thousands of patients every month.

A loan guaranty enabled Edward Munaaba to borrow $10,500 from a local bank in the Jinja district to install solar panels in his nine-acre community farm, introducing electricity to the village for the first time ever. The addition of electricity has supported cold storage, submersible solar pumps for irrigation, and training for farmers in the community.

Partnering with USAID, DFC structured a 50 percent loan portfolio credit guarantee with Botswana’s Absa Bank Botswana, which enabled Absa to lend to Arona Natural Foods, a small local bread producer with fewer than 10 employees.

Political risk insurance is supporting SilverStreet Private Equity’s investment in two vineyards that grow table grapes in Aussenkehr, a fertile region of the country that borders on South Africa. Water from the Orange River is used to irrigate the vineyards and the optimal conditions mean the grapes mature rapidly.

A $10 million loan has helped Kiva Microfunds support almost 100,000 microloans to developing country borrowers across 30 countries. With women comprising more than three quarters of borrowers, the project advances DFC’s 2X Women’s Initiative to support projects that economically empower women.

Financing and political risk insurance supported construction of a 158 MW power plant about 50 miles northeast of Dakar. The Taiba N’Diaye plant, the largest wind power plant in West Africa, began operations in February 2020, generating about 15 percent of Senegal’s total installed generating capacity and helping about two million people gain access to power for the first time.