Beyond the Grid Fund for Zambia

Inititated in 2016, the Beyond the Grid Fund for Zambia (BGFZ) has reached its goal to provide clean, affordable, reliable off-grid energy access by connecting over 190,000 households – translating to one million Zambians – by 2022. BGFZ is funded by Sweden, through its development cooperation agency Sida, and implemented by REEEP. BGFZ works through a combination of an innovative results-based financing (RBF) mechanism for companies, close cooperation with the Zambian government and real-time data collection and analysis handled previously through REEEP’s custom-built Edison platform. It provides incentives to four energy service companies to enter the market, offering financing to close the ‘viability gap’, on a per-connection basis, of the rollout and scaling up of clean energy services in areas that would otherwise not represent viable markets. 

BGFZ won the 2019 Ashden Award for Innovative Finance, a 2019 UN Global Climate Action Award and the 2020 Energy Globe Prize for Zambia.

Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa

Building on the positive experiences of the Beyond the Grid Fund for Zambia pilot programme, The Beyond the Grid Fund for Africa (BGFA) was established in 2019 at Sweden’s initiative as a new funding facility managed by the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (Nefco), an international financial institution focused on environmental and climate investments based in Helsinki, Finland and implemented by REEEP.

The BGFA programme aims to establish up to 1.44 million energy connections by 2028, benefiting more than 6.5 million people in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia. Please visit the programme's website at www.beyondthegrid.africa for more information.