SFC invests $75m in PIDG’s Africa Projects

The Swiss Confederation will contribute $75 million to several developing nations. The money will go to the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), an organisation that finances environmentally friendly infrastructure projects in South and Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and other regions. This financial institution employs investment firms like InfraCo Africa to do its business.

The corporation, which has its headquarters in London, UK, has recently boosted its involvement in large-scale solar energy production in Malawi, Guinea, Chad, and Kenya. Additionally, InfraCo Africa supports decentralised solar electrification in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. Hydroelectric projects have been funded for Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Zambia, and Mozambique, among other countries.

In recent years, the firm led by Gilles Vaes has also distinguished itself by assisting the growth of geothermal energy in Ethiopia, ecological mobility in Uganda and Kenya, and even the development of irrigated agriculture on a continent suffering from drought, which is a contributing factor to food insecurity.

PIDG also invests in Africa through the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), a Ninety One-managed investment fund with a focus on infrastructure. The group even has a guarantee company of its own, GuarantCo, which has helped finance the development of basic infrastructure in Africa, including the Kita solar photovoltaic power plant (50 MWp) in Mali and the Ambatolampy facility (40 MWp) in Madagascar.

The $75 million investment in the PIDG, according to the Swiss government, is consistent with its participation with the private sector in the 2021–2024 international cooperation strategy to accomplish the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This funding “is also in line with three criteria defined in this strategy, which aims: to provide people in developing countries with access to essential services, to take into account Switzerland’s long-term interests in climate protection and opportunities for its companies in the field of green technologies, and to highlight Switzerland’s added value as a recognized pole of sustainable and innovative financing for the SDGs in developing countries,” the Swiss Federal Council notes.