The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has allocated $2.9 billion in long-term and short-term financing to businesses in Kenya, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Mary Porter Peschka, IFC’s Regional Director for Eastern Africa, announced that $65 million has been provided to M-Kopa Holdings, a Kenyan fintech platform, to expand its financial services for underserved consumers.
The primary objectives of this fund are to enhance access to finance for small businesses, promote energy accessibility, and advance gender inclusion. Peschka emphasized that the IFC has increased its investments in Eastern Africa by 61% during the last financial year, and this funding will facilitate increased lending to small businesses, broader access to sustainable energy, and greater gender inclusion.
Peschka further mentioned the IFC’s commitment to expanding its activities across Eastern Africa to support the region’s development agenda and the private sector’s role in fostering a more inclusive and environmentally sustainable future. This initiative aims to improve access to productive assets such as solar home systems, smartphones, and e-bikes, making them more accessible to customers.
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In addition to this, the IFC has extended a $150 million loan to KCB Kenya to help businesses address the impacts of climate change, with a particular focus on financing energy efficiency projects, renewable energy, climate-smart initiatives, and green buildings.
In Tanzania, the IFC has launched ‘Anaweza: She Can,’ a $10 million program aimed at empowering more women across Tanzania to access financing, attain leadership positions in the private sector, and establish or expand businesses, including those in agriculture. This program aligns with various Tanzanian development initiatives, including Tanzania Development Vision 2025, the National Five-Year Development Plan III (2021/22–2025/26), Zanzibar Development Vision 2050, the National Gender Policy and its Strategy, and the country’s commitments to gender equality as outlined in the Generation Equality agenda.
In the DRC, the IFC has invested $10 million in Nuru to expand access to renewable energy through mini-grid systems. Nuru’s utility-scale “metro-grids” utilize cutting-edge technology to provide reliable, round-the-clock renewable energy to communities in Eastern DRC. The project in Bunia, once completed, will be the largest off-grid solar hybrid endeavor of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Sérgio Pimenta, IFC’s Vice President for Africa, highlighted that the organization has funded African investments amounting to $11.5 billion between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, across 40 countries. He emphasized the IFC’s commitment to catalyzing private sector innovation and financing to address climate change, bridge gender disparities, and empower the next generation of startup leaders to create employment and opportunities for more people.
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Peschka concluded by underscoring the need for proactive efforts to confront the global challenges, as discussed during the recent Annual Meetings in Marrakech, emphasizing that “business as usual” is insufficient to address these monumental issues.
IFC East Africa IFC East Africa
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard