MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: FMO, IFC Invest $16m in Equity in Mobisol to Finance Solar Power in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania

Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO), a Dutch development bank, recently announced that is placing equity investments totaling EUR 9.2 million (USD 9.9 million) in Mobisol, a Germany-based provider of solar home systems in East Africa. The investments are funded by two entities FMO manages in partnership with the Dutch government: MASSIF and the Access to Energy Fund. These investments were accompanied by an equity placement of EUR 5.4 million (USD 5.8 million) by the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation. The purpose of the investments is to support the expansion of Mobisol into Kenya and help it grow in Rwanda and Tanzania, where it has installed 67,000 systems as of 2016. The systems are purchased via mobile money, in installments over the course of three years. Other investors in Mobisol include Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (DEG), a German development bank, and the African Private Equity Fund of Investec Asset Management, a South Africa-based firm with offices on five continents.

Founded in 1970, FMO is 51-percent owned by the Dutch government. Its other stakeholders are commercial banks, trade unions, employers’ associations and individual investors. FMO supports governments and invests in financial institutions, energy firms and agribusiness operators in developing countries through loans, guarantees and other investment promotion activities, including local-currency investments. As of 2015, FMO reported total assets of EUR 8.4 billion (USD 9.05 billion).

IFC offers loans, equity investments, technical assistance and risk mitigation services to private companies with the intent of alleviating poverty and promoting open and competitive markets in developing countries. As of 2016, IFC has 184 member countries that drive its policies and approve disbursements, and it reported total assets of USD 90 billion.

Sources and Additional Resources

IFC and FMO Investment in Mobisol Helps Deliver Decentralized Solar Energy to East Africa
https://www.fmo.nl/k/n1771/news/view/34210/20819/ifc-and-fmo-investment-in-mobisol-helps-deliver-decentralized-solar-energy-to-east-africa.html

Mobisol
http://www.plugintheworld.com/mobisol/

IFC
http://www.ifc.org/

DEG
http://www.deginvest.de/

Investec
https://www.investec.com/

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