British International Investment (BII) has announced a $20 million senior secured portfolio debt facility for Anzana Electric Group, a move aimed at accelerating the development of run-of-river hydropower projects across Africa. The funding, provided by the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor, is designed to support small- and medium-scale hydropower plants, including those with potential solar hybridisation, across East, Central and Southern Africa.
Smaller hydropower installations—particularly those under 10MW—often struggle to secure long-term debt financing due to high upfront costs and lengthy structuring timelines. BII structured this facility to address those constraints by enabling portfolio-level financing across multiple project companies rather than requiring individual project-by-project security.
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Anzana expects to unlock 10MW of new distributed baseload generation capacity by 2030. This scale of power generation would provide more than 50GWh of clean electricity annually for national and regional grids as well as high-demand commercial and industrial users. The projects are also expected to create more than 500 jobs across construction and operations phases, while supporting wider efforts to expand electricity access and strengthen energy reliability across targeted markets.
Strategic Expansion and Governance
Chris Chijiutomi, Managing Director and Head of Africa at BII, stated, “Africa faces a significant energy access gap, with nearly 600 million people without electricity. We’re committed to working with partners like Anzana to support Mission 300 and provide electricity access to 300 million people in Africa by 2030. Through this financing, we’re helping countries transition to renewable power, strengthen electricity networks, and deliver clean, reliable energy to millions of households.”
Brian Kelly, Chief Executive Officer of Anzana Electric Group, added, “This facility is an important milestone for Anzana as we scale our platform across Africa and expand on our close partnership with BII. Through an end-to-end model spanning generation and distribution, including customer connections, we ensure consistent reliability and quality across the full power value chain. Our focus on strong governance, disciplined execution, and strategic corridor development allows us to deliver power where it is needed most while supporting national government objectives for sustained long-term economic growth.”
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Structured as a portfolio-level senior secured facility, the financing allows capital to be deployed across multiple projects in different countries. This approach enables faster execution of Anzana’s development pipeline and supports expansion along key regional energy corridors.
While the facility marks a concrete step forward for the projects, the long-term success of such regional infrastructure relies heavily on stable regulatory frameworks and consistent government policies in the host countries. Without predictable policy environments, even well-capitalized renewable energy projects can face delays or operational hurdles that threaten their financial returns and their ability to deliver consistent power to the grid.
