We recently covered Distributed Power Africa’s (DPA) investment with Mettle Solar to build a solar plant for Liquid Telecom’s East Africa Data Centre. Well, DPA has announced that it has secured an investment of its own. The renewable energy company will receive a US$20 million investment from Royal Bafokeng Holdings (RBH).
Royal Bafokeng Holdings is an African community investment company which with its sole shareholder the Royal Bafokeng National Development Trust (RBNDT) manage a portfolio that is approximately R30 Billion (US$1.8 billion) as of December 2019. RBH’s portfolio is diverse and covers property, financial services, telecoms, resources and industry in a number of countries.
The investment that RBH has made in DPA is by way of a newly formed asset company called Asset-Co. The funding will support DPA’s projects in South Africa, Kenya, the DRC and Zambia. RBH will be taking a 60% stake in the asset company alongside Econet Energy Limited.
DPA CEO Norman Moyo said that the company was looking for ways to ease the burden of deploying solar by ensuring its customers engage in a capital expenditure-free model whereby they sign power lease agreements up to 15 years.
“We are excited to be backed by a like-minded African community investor RBH, in unlocking energy by reducing the burden of upfront investment for businesses. We believe energy is a fundamental pillar in supporting Africa’s economic development. This opportunity is an important step towards our vision of powering Africa for a better and brighter future”
Norman Moyo, CEO Distributed Power Africa
Royal Bafokeng Holdings CEO Albertinah Kekana emphasised that the focus for RBH is investing in infrastructure which is centred around renewable energy. She went on to say,
“We are particularly pleased about this opportunity as it enhances energy as a key enabler for the datacentre business – now a major investment focus in our portfolio – as the demand for connectivity has been greatly increased by the pandemic. We have partnered with a very dynamic business with a strong record of execution on the African continent who are backed by a very successful Group, Econet.”
