The World Bank’s latest outcome bond is a ‘landmark’ issuance focused on mobilising capital towards clean cooking solutions in Ghana.

Issued in December 2025, the seven-year $200 million bond is 100% principal-protected. The bond is structured in such a way to allow investors to provide funding needed by a clean cooking project. According to the World Bank, if the projects perform well, investors have the potential of receiving an overall bond yield that is higher than yields from a vanilla bond of the same maturity issued by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), known as 'World Bank' in the capital markets

An amount equivalent to some of the coupon payable to investors (approximately $30.5 million) will be “frontloaded” as up-front capital to UpEnergy, a carbon project developer. It is expected that this will support the distribution of around 400,000 cleaner cookstoves in Ghana.

The bond’s coupon includes a fixed rate component (1.093% p.a.) and a variable component linked to the sale of Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) – the carbon credits traded under the Paris Agreement’s Article 6 mechanism. Under a Swiss-Ghana agreement, the KliK Foundation has committed to purchasing ITMOs generated in Ghana.

The bond’s “frontload” was made available through the difference between the lower fixed rate coupon component and the fixed rate coupon in a regular World Bank bond and monetised by an interest rate swap transaction.

The bond attracted over ten investors, including Kenyan reinsurer ZEP-RE, the first African investor in a World Bank outcome bond.

Judges of the Environmental Finance Sustainable Debt Awards labelled the bond as innovative and an excellent example of structuring. They said the “transaction represents a significant advancement in sustainable bond structuring by directly linking investor returns to independently verified environmental and social outcomes by maintaining principal protection.

“The outcome-based design moves beyond traditional use-of-proceeds and KPI-linked structures and demonstrates clear execution at scale. The structure materially advances results-based sustainable finance and provides a credible model for mobilising private capital towards measurable impact”.