TDB GROUP SIGNS LANDMARK AGREEMENTS WITH LEADING DRE AND CLEAN COOKING COMPANIES TO DELIVER CLEAN ENERGY ACCESS FOR 3 MILLION PEOPLE WITHIN A YEAR, AS PART OF AN INITIAL STRING OF DEALS
The agreements signed on the sidelines of AEF are part of TDB Group’s Regional Energy Access Financing Platform, a first-of-its-kind platform supported by the World Bank’s ASCENT Program under Mission 300
Cape Town, 19 June 2025 – The Trade and Development Bank Group (TDB Group), and its concessional and grant window, the Trade and Development Fund (TDF), in partnership with the World Bank, today signed the first suite of financing agreements under its Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Access Transformation ‘ASCENT’ program – an ambitious regional initiative that combines debt, results-based grants, and SME finance to accelerate distributed renewable energy (DRE) and clean cooking access across Africa.
The signing ceremony, held at the Africa Energy Forum (AEF), featured an agreement for a debt facility with Burn Manufacturing and, via TDF, two performance-based grants with Ignite Power and Burn Manufacturing.
Along with another four companies currently at advanced stages in their application process, these initial agreements, in addition to reducing carbon emissions and supporting job creation, are expected to benefit a combined three million people with access to DRE and clean cooking solutions – including one million by the end of this calendar year through results-based financing, and a further two million within 12 months through debt-finance.
The signing ceremony was led by TDB Group President and Managing Director Admassu Tadesse, World Bank incoming Regional Director for Infrastructure for Eastern and Southern Africa Erik Fernstrom, as well as Yariv Cohen, the CEO of Ignite Power and Leif Christian Haerum, the CFO of Burn Manufacturing.
“Our special partnership with the World Bank Group is well positioned to bolster efforts towards bolstering climate resilience and growth in Africa” said Admassu Tadesse, TDB Group President and Managing Director. “Importantly, this first regional African energy access financing platform launched with the support of ASCENT sets the stage for significant scaling, in line with the Mission 300 initiative.”
ASCENT is a flagship component of Mission 300, a World Bank and African Development Bank-led initiative to connect 300 million people to electricity by 2030, half of them through private sector-led DRE solutions.
“This platform and partnership represent the kind of bold, regional innovation we need to close the energy access gap,” said Erik Fernstrom, World Bank incoming Regional Director for Infrastructure for Eastern and Southern Africa. “By enabling African entrepreneurs to grow and deliver at scale, ASCENT is a vital part of Mission 300 – and of the regional push to achieve universal access. This is just the beginning.”
Mary Kamari, TDF Executive Director, added: “The Trade and Development Fund (TDF), with the deployment of performance-based grants to support qualifying energy companies, demonstrates how it is possible to blend commercial and catalytic finance, leveraging digital technology to tackle one of the continent’s most profound challenges: access to modern and clean energy.”
Peter Scott, Peter Scott, Founder and CEO, BURN said: “BURN is delighted to partner with TDB Group to bring our revolutionary induction and biomass cookstoves to 429,127 households across Mozambique, DRC and Zambia. This ‘first of its kind’ investment will utilize TDB Group funds to provide a significant subsidy to customers in exchange for the future value of the carbon credits. BURN’s IoT enabled cooking appliances are setting a new standard for carbon credit integrity as well as setting a higher pricing, providing significant upside to TDB Group, BURN and our customers. BURN is confident that this will be the first of many such deals with TDB and similar institutions. Enormous thanks to TDB Group, TDF, World Bank Ascent and my team for all the effort over the years to get this deal over the line.”
“We are extremely honoured to partner with the ASCENT team at the World Bank, TDB Group, and TDF on this groundbreaking regional RBF program”, says Yariv Cohen, CEO of Ignite Energy Access. “As one of the leading providers of distributed renewable energy solutions across Sub-Saharan Africa, we’ve seen firsthand how transformative Results-Based Financing can be, unlocking scale, accelerating impact, and enabling us to reach the most remote communities with first-time access to electricity. This initiative is a major step toward mass electrification across the continent, enabling real, measurable progress on the ground. Bold, disruptive thinking like this is exactly what our sector needs to move forward. We’re proud to contribute to this effort, to support Mission 300, and to scale our impact alongside such strong partners.”
Regional DRE and clean cooking companies with strong track records and exponential growth potential will be empowered – thanks to the catalytic financing of TDB Group, TDF and its partners, including equity, debt, and results-based grant financing – to fully realize their scale-up ambitions.
Since 2020, TDB Group and the World Bank Group have engaged in pioneering agreements in excess USD 1.5 billion, including via the International Development Association (IDA) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), targeting several sectors in support of the sustainable development of the continent. As part of the latter, over half a billion is already dedicated to expanding electrification in TDB Group’s frontier economies, and is expected to be further leveraged through new unique vehicles under development.
Through TDB ASCENT, TDB Group is positioning itself as a regional leader in climate and energy access finance – mobilizing and intermediating capital to drive inclusive, market-led energy solutions across Africa.
