Impact Review
Impact Capital Partners’ Emerging Market Private Debt Fund Manager, has facilitated financing for an independent power producer in Ghana. The financing will help address Ghana’s inherent lack of access to capital while reducing the demand pressures and blackout frequency that currently burden the country’s electrical grid. The company has already transitioned from heavy oil and liquified petroleum gas to natural gas and their long-term ambition is to deliver 100% clean electricity across Africa by 2035 and net-zero emissions by 2050.
This financing is in alignment with the following UN Sustainable Development Goals: 5. Gender Equality, 7. Affordable & Clean Energy, 8. Decent Work & Economic Growth, and 10. Reduced Inequalities
Addressing Ghana's lack of access to capital
This Power Producer is based in Ghana, one of the fastest growing countries in Africa with the 8th largest economy by GDP. However, the cost of available credit is one of the central problems facing Ghana’s industrial sector. Across various segments, a lack of funds and high interest rates have constrained the country’s growth potential. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimates that up to 84% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) in Africa are either un-served or underserved, representing a value gap in credit financing of USD 140 – 170 billion (source).
Improving Ghana's access to energy
The Power Producer’s turn-key energy generation solutions enable companies operating in Ghana to realize efficiency and productivity gains by providing access to stable sources of electricity in a country characterized by rising energy demands and limited supply (read more about Ghana’s Growing Need for Reliable Energy). Financing will support the import of three state-of-art aero-derivative gas turbines from the United States for the development and construction of two new power plants in Ghana. Once operational, the financed equipment and associated power plants will help reduce the demand pressures and blackout frequency that currently burden the country’s electrical grid and hinder efficient delivery of power to residential and commercial end-users.
Aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals
The funding of this Power Producer addresses 4 out of 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Collectively, these development goals were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
Goal 8
100% Alignment with Other Key Impact Benchmarks
- Aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
- Conforms to the IFC Exclusion List
- Meets local and international laws and respective practices
- Is in compliance with local environmental, labor, health, safety and business laws
- Represents in writing their company’s ongoing commitment to ESG practices
- Environmental practices such as: energy savings, waste reduction and water conservation
- Social policies for fair hiring, compensation, maternity leave, community service and corporate donations
- Agrees to identify and track the GIIN’s IRIS metrics
Additional Sustainability & Impact Highlights
- The financed equipment is built to standards modeled after ISO 9001 quality management system criteria and will generate up to 547 GWh of power for the borrower’s commercial clients, helping decrease industrial dependence on the national electricity grid and enabling greater access for public consumption.
- Committed to improving employee welfare, the borrower has implemented human resource policies that include maternity leave, fair hiring/recruiting and compensation practices (including a basic salary and allowances for health insurance, housing, transportation, and cell phone use), anti-sexual harassment, fair career advancement, and retirement savings.
- As a responsible corporate citizen, the borrower administers a student scholarship initiative that finances student tuition, including textbooks and notebooks, at local secondary schools and tertiary education programs at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
