Infra Dig – energising Africa with BII

The latest episode of Infra Dig – the IJGlobal podcast service – delves into the pressing need to invest in energy generation across the African continent. 

IJGlobal editorial director Angus Leslie Melville talks to Iain Macaulay, director and head of project finance for Africa and Pakistan at British International Investment (BII) – the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor. 

This latest episode runs for a little more than 27 minutes and see Iain drill down into a major project that it supported, together with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

This latest episode can be accessed on Spotify (embedded above) as well as through Apple Podcasts and on the Amazon service. It is also hosted across a slew of other platforms, open access on all of them.

Iain is part of a broader group within BII that operates as the Infrastructure & Climate team. It is able to deploy debt, equity and has invested £2.2 billion to date on climate finance.

BII has an overall target of deploying 30% of its budget towards climate finance, which largely comes from this business group.

Much of the conversation focuses on Obelisk Solar PV & BESS where BII worked alongside AfDB and EBRD to supoort Egypt’s first integrated PV and battery storage project to reach financial close – led by Scatec.

This transaction stands as a pioneer in a country that has plans to deliver a good number of similar transactions to support the goal of achieving 32% of renewable energy in the power mix by 2030.

Tune in to this latest episode to hear more...