Off-grid solar platform BBOXX gets USD-31m AIIM cash boost

Off-grid solar power provider BBOXX has secured a USD-31-million (EUR 27m) investment from the Africa Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) fund that will enable it to install two million solar systems in Africa by 2022.

The investment, made through the AIIF3 fund, will give Africa’s largest infrastructure-focused private equity fund manager a minority stake in the UK utility platform’s business in Rwanda, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). BBOXX said on Sunday that the financing is expected to help it speed up the roll-out of its photovoltaic (PV) installations, combined with battery storage capacity, that it offers through the pay-as-you-go model.

The planned solar systems will provide electricity access to 10 million people in the three above-mentioned countries. The customers expected to benefit from the initiative are households, schools and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in rural, urban and peri-urban regions.

“AIIM’s investment will turbo-charge our operations in Rwanda, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This will allow us to scale rapidly and continue to drive disaggregation in what has traditionally been a vertically integrated market,” commented BBOXX’s CEO and co-founder Mansoor Hamayun.

BBOXX has activities in Rwanda, Kenya, Togo, the DRC, Nigeria and Pakistan. Its off-grid solar power supply business in Togo is 50%-owned by French utility Electricite de France (EPA:EDF).

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.871)

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