COVID-19 ENERGY ACCESS RELIEF FUND

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The Energy Access Relief Fund (EARF) is a global fund established by multiple public and private financiers as a unified response to COVID-19’s threat to the survival of the nascent energy access industry, and preservation of energy access gains achieved in the past decade. It is an unprecedented effort bringing together a dozen of distinct financiers, which include DFIs, foundations, climate funds, bilateral donors, as well as private sector to work collaboratively to provide a coordinated and agile response to the COVID-19 threat to achieving the SDG7 Goal. EARF will offer concessional financing to eligible energy access companies in exchange for their commitment to maintain jobs and continue serving their customers, in particular the poor and vulnerable households. The EARF beneficiaries will be mostly small and medium-sized companies that distribute clean energy products and services in the off-grid solar, mini grid and efficient/clean cooking sectors. Their customers (end-users) are typically low-income households and small or micro-businesses in rural and peri-urban areas with no or unreliable access to an electricity grid or other sources of clean energy or electricity.The proposed project will provide a US$2.2 million grant to SIMA, in order to (a) facilitate concessional financing provided by EARF to the Eligible Energy Access Companies (Component 1); and (b) strengthen SIMA’s capacity by covering its operating costs for incremental due diligence, monitoring andn auditing expenses, due to the exceptionally large number of transactions given EARF’s targeted focus on smaller companies (Component 2).