Africa GreenCo won this year's Award for innovation – loan structure with one Sustainable Debt Awards judge, describing it as "a great way to unlock financing for independent power projects (IPPs) in this region".

Africa GreenCo acts as a creditworthy off-taker of renewable energy from IPPs in the region to be sold to private off-takers and on the Southern African Power Pool.

GuarantCo provided a $27 million guarantee to Africa GreenCo to cover its payment obligations to IPPs over an eight-year period. The GuarantCo guarantees are issued directly to the IPPs providing IPPs and their lenders with the comfort of GuarantCo's high credit ratings to enter long-term power purchase agreements to build renewable energy projects across southern Africa.

The $27 million guarantee facility is expected to enable up to $270 million of investment in IPPs with up to 300MW of renewable energy forecast to be constructed.
Judges noted that the loan structure was "highly replicable" and a "successful template to follow".