BII Invests $20 Million in Anzana to Expand Clean Power Projects Across Africa

British International Investment has provided a $20 million debt facility to Anzana Electric Group to speed up the development of run-of-river hydropower projects across Africa.

The financing is aimed at helping the company overcome the high upfront costs and long development timelines that often slow smaller hydropower schemes. It will support construction across Anzana’s portfolio of small and medium-sized plants in East, Central and Southern Africa, with room for solar hybrid systems where needed.

Anzana expects the facility to help unlock 10MW of new distributed baseload generation capacity by 2030, alongside more than 50GWh of clean electricity annually for national and regional grids and high-demand business centres. The first project under the arrangement will be in Zambia.

The portfolio is also projected to create more than 500 jobs during construction and operations, while improving electricity access and supporting local economic activity in the regions where the projects are built.

British International Investment said the investment fits into its wider push to close Africa’s electricity gap and support Mission 300, an initiative targeting electricity access for 300 million people across the continent by 2030. It noted that the funding will help countries shift toward renewable power, strengthen networks and deliver more reliable energy to households.

Anzana’s chief executive, Brian Kelly, described the facility as an important milestone for the company’s expansion across Africa. He noted that the group’s model covers generation, distribution and customer connections, allowing it to maintain reliability and quality across the power value chain.

The financing is structured at portfolio level, allowing capital to be deployed across multiple project companies in different countries. That approach is expected to help Anzana bring projects to market faster and expand along key energy corridors.