Before the money moves, someone carries the risk

ATIDI has spent a year behind energy projects across the continent and intends to widen that support, its senior underwriter Annabelle Buzingo told AEF, through greater underwriting capacity, more partners and solutions built for renewable infrastructure, with transmission and local institutions rising up the agenda.

The African Trade and Investment Development Insurance has spent the past year backing energy projects across the continent, and used the Africa Energy Forum to set out how it intends to widen that support, according to Annabelle Buzingo, ATIDI’s senior underwriter for political and credit risks.

Buzingo said ATIDI plans to grow its own underwriting and risk capacity, and to mobilise more partners and members to invest alongside it. Solutions tailored specifically to renewable infrastructure form the third strand of that intent. She pointed to the recent strengthening of ATIDI’s shareholder base, including increased participation from existing partners and new shareholders coming on board, which she said reinforces the institution’s balance sheet and its capacity to support energy financing across the region.

The institution’s track record gives the ambition its footing. ATIDI’s Regional Liquidity Support Facility has underpinned renewable projects amounting to 181.95MW of installed capacity across four countries, with total financing exceeding $323 million, by the institution’s own reporting, and its capital base stood at $791.5 million at the end of 2024, a rise of 13% on the year.

On where the market needs it next, Buzingo described ATIDI working closely with the private sector to understand where the gaps lie and to shape solutions around them. Transmission and distribution, rather than generation alone, is a growing area of focus, she said, alongside the currency and revenue challenges the sector is working to manage. Bringing local banks and pension funds into energy financing, and helping de-risk their participation, is part of how ATIDI sees the next phase developing.

Reflecting on her first Africa Energy Forum, Buzingo said the week had been a busy and valuable one, drawing the sector’s ecosystem of industry, government and finance into one place to share experience, and that momentum of that kind is precisely what the institution’s work exists to convert into projects.