Mozambique’s BNI National Development and Investment Bank have been selected as one of the Mozambican banks to participate in a project sponsored by European Union entities aimed at supporting financial institutions in the energy sector, specifically renewable energies.

 

The project aims to promote local financing of the renewable energy ecosystem and is managed by the GIZ ‘Financial Systems Development’ program on behalf of GET.invest, an initiative supported by the EU, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, and Austria. The implementation of the project is under Frankfurt base IPC GmbH.

 

Through technical support, the program aims to promote national private financing for different types of investments in renewable energies, supporting BNI in the development of internal capacities for the structuring of financial products suitable for the sector, transferring practical know-how in the evaluation of applications and in designing appropriate risk mitigation solutions for lending.

The program will initially last for a year and will include support for the structuring of renewable energy projects currently in BNI’s portfolio.

 

Tomás Matola, BNI CEO stated that “Renewable energies are part of an important pillar for the development of our country and greater inclusion in the electrification process of Mozambique. BNI, as an instrument for implementing the Mozambican Government’s development strategy, has a strategic role in the structuring of renewable energy projects.”

 

According to Rui Chikande, IPC‘s financial sector specialist, “The potential for renewable energy in Mozambique is enormous and virtually untapped. As such, this also constitutes a great opportunity on the part of Commercial Banks in Mozambique. The regulatory framework is designed for large projects such as hydro. Therefore, it is not adapted to renewable energies, that is, to smaller projects with short development periods. As such, many players in the financial sector have not accumulated experience in the renewable energy ecosystem. Through this initiative, we propose training to improve the supply of credit in the renewable energy sector supported by national financial institutions.”