Nairobi-based pan African Investment and Credit Risks solutions provider, African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Ghana for the roll out of the Regional Liquidity Support Facility (RLSF).
This is in line with the country’s mission to promote access to reliable, clean, and affordable electricity. Ghana is the ninth ATI Member State to have signed the RLSF MoU – joining Benin, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Malawi, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.
The RLSF, a joint initiative of ATI, the KfW Development Bank and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), is a financial product that is designed to address the short term liquidity risks faced by small and medium sized Independent Power Producers (IPPs) that sell electricity to state owned power utilities – improving bankability and helping such projects reach financial close.
“The signing of the MoU has come at an opportune time when the demand for energy in Ghana is increasing by 10% per year, coupled with the country’s focus on expanding the contribution of renewable energy sources towards the country’s energy mix. Thanks to the MoU, IPPs in Ghana will benefit from RLSF which was not only created to help tackle climate change and attract investments by supporting renewable energy projects in ATI’s member countries, but also to protect the IPPs against the risk of delayed payments by public offtakers,” the company said in a statement.
Ghana has one of Africa’s highest rates of access to electricity at 86.63 percent with 74 percent of rural residents and 95 percent of urban residents connected to the electricity grid.
Ghana also exports excess power to the neighboring countries of Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo. Additionally, the country, which currently has a total installed capacity of over 5,300 MW – aspires to industrialize, modernize its agriculture, and provide economic opportunities for its growing population.
However, one of the key constraints to this vision is access to reliable and cost-efficient electric power, and the sector’s current financial deficit. RLSF will therefore be available to relieve the financial burden of the national utility, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), which is often asked to provide collateral for similar liquidity instruments under power purchase agreements.