Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Energy Financing (SUNREF) and its partners, CalBank and GCB Bank have pledged to immensely support the West Africa Automotive Village initiative by the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey.

Part of a global initiative by French Development Agency to get public and private banks to finance private sector investments in green technologies and sustainable energy, SUNREF Ghana, is making available €32.5 million through its partners to support renewable energy financing in the country.

Team Leader for SUNREF, Normand Michaud, told participants at the first ever Greater Accra Regional Investment Opportunities Conference that the objectives of the project is to reduce the energy intensity of Ghanaian economy, secure energy supply for households, companies and institutions Leverage investments in renewable energy, among others.

He is therefore urging all to take advantage of the energy financing project to transform the renewable energy or green financing project in the country.

“SUNREF work with either the government or some agencies in each country. Here in Ghana, we are working with the Energy Commission, and the Energy Commission is the one managing the SUNREF project with the two banks [CalBank and GCB Bank] and the AFD [l’Agence Francaise de Developpement]. What am doing here and the service am providing here - technical assistance - we are not billing the customers, the banks etc.”

“We’ve been talking about green project, green investments and the need to develop the cities in an environmentally friendly way. So what SUNREF is trying to doing is exactly that; to work on reducing the energy intensities of the countries - how much the cities are consuming, how much the private sector is consuming, the industries, making sure that we secure energy for everyone – no more power outages”, Mr. Michaud said.

“We mentioned about environmental friendly projects, developing the countries, the cities in a green way. The type of projects for the credit line include solar energy, biomass or biogas. In terms of energy efficiency project, what we are looking for is a programme for saving energy”, he added.

The SUNREF Ghana boss also mentioned that institutions that are interested in purchasing electric vehicles will also be given the necessary financial support to do so.

SUNREF, a green finance label developed by AFD and supported by the EU launched its energy financing programme for Ghana in Accra in 2021.

The programme is a unique and innovative financial offer, with a credit line of €30 million from the AFD and €2.5 million as grant and technical assistance from the EU, provided to local partner banks.

CalBank was the first bank to partner with the programme.