Havenhill_DARES

pending

Havenhill Synergy Limited (“Havenhill” or “the Company”), founded in 2010, is a clean technology utility company that uses renewable (solar) energy to generate clean, safe, cost-effective and sustainable electricity in urban and rural areas in Nigeria. The Company has installed 35 mini-grids in several states, including Federal Capital Territory, Oyo, and Kwara, and in the process of identifying more sites across other States. The total installed capacity is 2.7MW with 20,340 connections realized, impacting 90,000 people, 3,000 MSMEs and over 65 healthcare centers. The proposed IFC investment consists of a revolving loan of up to USD16.8m to partly finance the company’s 4-year capital expenditure plan to construct and operate 43 mini-grids solar sites with an aim to connect 80,000+ off-grid consumers by 2026. The mini-grids sites will comprise i) installed photovoltaic (PV) solar power of between 50 - 800kWp capacity; ii) battery storage of between 200 - 1,645Wh capacity; iii) diesel generator sets of between 60 - 500kVA capacity, and; iv) local low voltage power distribution network without transformers (the “Project”). The loan shall be secured entirely through an assignment of amounts due to Havenhill under the World Bank (WB) financed Nigeria Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (“DARES”) project (disclosed on the WB Website - P179687). The DARES project builds on the achievements of the WB financed Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP), which has supported the establishment of 125 mini-grids and the sale of over a million Solar Home Systems, through which more than 5.5 million Nigerians have gained access to electricity. Land for the mini-grids is acquired in accordance with the procedures set out in the World Bank-approved Resettlement Policy Framework (RPF) developed under the DARES Platform, which serves as a core E&S instrument for projects implemented through this program.Proceeds from IFC financing will only be used for the construction and operation of the 43 mini grids. The mini-grids will mostly be in villages, on small plots of land of ~ 0.25ha, purchased on a willing buyer-willing seller basis in Niger, Nasarawa, Kogi, Taraba, Kwara, Benue states. The construction period of each mini-grid system is around 4 weeks and construction, and operation and maintenance (O&M) will be managed in-house by the Company.