Creating a debt fund for prepaid energy access is a winning FiRe intervention, championed by Simon Bransfield-Garth of Azuri Technologies Ltd in 2014. The fund would provide debt finance to prepaid energy service providers, securitised against the assets and forward revenue streams from customers, delivering electricity access to off-grid populations in developing countries.

In partnership with Oasis African Resources and the Ministry of Power, Azuri Technologies have introduced Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) Solar systems in Ghana. Over the next two years, this project will bring solar power to 100,000 off-grid Ghanaian households. The initiative is in line with the government ambition of scaling up reliable, renewable power supply of Ghana.

Simon Bransfield-Garth, CEO of Azuri Technologies, commented, “The FiRe initiative marked the beginning of a cross-industry initiative with the aim of creating a debt fund for prepaid energy access. Key to this is a standardised method of comparing existing PayGo solutions in order to assess the risk of future projects and this has resulted in the creation of a working group within the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association, bringing together industry experts to tackle this important topic. We expect to have an outcome from this activity later in 2015, providing a key stepping stone to the creation of structured debt finance for PayGo solutions.”

For more details email Lela Jgerenaia at ljgerenaia@bloomberg.net.