On Thursday, the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), announced that its impact development finance subsidiary, the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), has made a direct investment in Ecow-Gas (also known as Ecowgas), an LNG distribution infrastructure platform based in the West Africa region.
Per Afrexim, due to limited power supply from the grid, the industrial sector in Africa suffers severe energy shortages with attendant high production costs, inefficient operations and reduced global competitiveness, amongst others. Off-grid solutions are required to address these challenges and put Africa firmly on the path to energy sustainability.
FEDA’s investment in Ecow-Gas will support the creation, in partnership with an unnamed leading international oil company, of the infrastructure needed to provide access to cheaper and cleaner fuels for underserved industrial customers across the region using LNG. This will also promote efforts to minimize CO2 emissions by replacing higher polluting fuels currently in use.
“FEDA’s investment in Ecow-Gas is a testament to its mission of providing development equity capital to sectors critical to the growth and development of intra-African trade, export development and industrialization,” Afreximbank President and Chairman of the Board Benedict Oramah said in an official comment. “Through this investment, FEDA is seeking to unlock access to affordable and cleaner energy for industrialization purposes and to significantly impact intraregional trade, especially in the West Africa region.”
“We are delighted to partner with experienced operators and investors on this mission-critical opportunity to unlock the provision of cheaper and cleaner fuel in West Africa,” FEDA’s Acting CEO, Emmanuel Assiak, said. “The combined complementary skills and capabilities within the Ecow-Gas platform stakeholders will help enable the Company to execute its growth plans. We believe that EcowGas will help to significantly remove the energy supply and cost bottlenecks that negatively impact the competitiveness of the region as a manufacturing destination.”
“We are excited to commence this project as we see LNG as not only a fuel for large scale Independent Power Producers in the region but for mid to small scale industries as well to transition from Heavy Fuel Oil, Diesel and other distillates and ultimately, to renewables,” said Kwaku Boakye-Adjei, CEO of H Investments and Ecow-Gas. “LNG powered microgeneration can help to alleviate issues such as intermittency which act as a barrier to wide scale adoption of renewables in West Africa.”
FEDA pursues a multi-sector investment strategy along the intra-African trade, value-added export development and manufacturing value chains which includes financial services, technology, consumer and retail goods, manufacturing, transport & logistics, agribusiness, as well as ancillary trade enabling infrastructure such as industrial parks, in Afreximbank’s member states.
African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is a Pan-African multilateral financial institution mandated to finance and promote intra-and extra-African trade. As of year-end 2020, the Cairo-headquartered bank held $21.5 billion in total assets and guarantees, while its shareholder funds totaled $3.4 billion.
