Regional Infrastructure Finance Facility (RIFF) Project

active

Prospective

The objective of the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank, and Common Market - Regional Infrastructure Finance Facility Project for Eastern and Southern Africa is to expand long-term finance to private firms in selected infrastructure sectors in Eastern and Southern Africa. The Project has three components. 1. Project and Infrastructure Finance Facility component will provide long-term finance to project finance and infrastructure sub-projects that meet development impact criteria. Sub-projects will be selected using a two-stage approach: Stage 1: Mandatory eligibility criteria: All sub-projects will be located in International Development Association (IDA)-eligible countries in Eastern and Southern Africa and will have to show commercial bankability, leveraging of private finance, compliance with the Environmental and Social (E and S) List of Excluded Activities, and with the IDA sustainable development finance policy as applicable to the respective countries; Stage 2: Prioritization criteria: All eligible sub-projects will be scored against objective, measurable and verifiable criteria along four dimensions: (i) Project benefits and contribution to corporate commitments including job creation, emissions reduction, low income targeting, gender actions; (ii) Levels of economic and financial returns; (iii) Strategic relevance with the expansion to Fragility, Conflict, and Violence (FCV) countries, and cross-border benefits in terms of trade and investment flows or transfers of technology; (iv) Technical readiness. 2. COVID-19 Infrastructure Sector Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Facility component will facilitate access to debt financing to SMEs, primarily targeting renewable energy SMEs such as solar home-systems (SHS), and also SMEs in the infrastructure value chain operating in Southern and Eastern Africa. In the COVID-19 context, this component will preserve household economic activity in the short-term and support firm productivity in the medium-term. 3. Technical Assistance component has two subcomponents. 3a. Capacity Building and Technical Assistance to Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB) subcomponent will provide the needed expertise to support TDB’s strategic decision to scale-up project and infrastructure finance and strengthen its capacity on E and S. 3b. Capacity Building and Technical Assistance to Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Secretariat subcomponent will support the enabling environment for private infrastructure finance with a focus on building a regional off-grid energy market.

FY17 - Financial Sector,FY17 - Public Administration

World Bank

Project

Solar, Power Generation (CCGT), Forest Products and Packaging, Residential, Government, Education, Commercial