By Edward Dankwah, GNA
Accra, Sept. 4, GNA – CIPA Holdings Group has outlined plans for a cedi denominated green bond programme to mobilise long-term local capital for renewable energy projects and help bridge Ghana’s financing gap.
The initiative was announced at the third edition of the Energy Sustainability Leadership Conference (ESLC), held in Accra.
The conference, organised by Safety Communication Consult (SCC) in partnership with the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition, was held on the theme: “Public-Private Synergy: The Role of Corporate Ghana in National Energy Transformation.”
Dr Yussif Sulemana, Technical Advisor at the Ministry, urged corporate Ghana to become investors, innovators, and strategic partners in the country’s energy transformation.
Mr Kwaku Osei-Sarpong, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of CIPA Holdings Group, said corporate governance had become critical to attracting capital for energy projects, as lenders increasingly demanded credible oversight and accountability.
He said Ghanaian banks had extended lending tenors to about seven years, but that remained below the 10 to 15 years required to finance solar assets without transferring additional costs to tariffs.
Mr Osei-Sarpong advocated local-currency financing instruments to reduce foreign exchange exposure, while noting that pension funds represented a significant pool of long-term capital that could support energy investments.
He described the gap between available institutional capital and bankable energy projects as the “missing middle” of Ghana’s climate finance landscape.
Mr Osei-Sarpong said the initiative was consistent with Ghana’s renewable energy ambitions and emphasised that the sector’s next phase would depend on institutions capable of attracting and responsibly managing long-term capital.
Mr Bright Yamoah, Chief Financial Officer of CIPA Holdings Group, said the company was already financing commercial and industrial (C&I) solar and battery energy storage system projects through local-currency Solar as a Service arrangement requiring no upfront capital from clients.
He said major barriers to expanding C&I solar financing included short local lending tenors, limited lender familiarity with the asset class, the absence of a standardised project pipeline and deal sizes that were often too small for conventional project finance.
Mr Yamoah said CIPA was responding by pooling multiple C&I solar assets into a single investable portfolio supported by independent governance, catalytic first-loss capital, and standardised underwriting.
He said CIPA was sponsoring a cedi-denominated green bond programme through its GreenStar platform, with an ambition to mobilise up to GH¢1 billion over five years.
The first phase would be anchored by at least 20 megawatts of aggregated assets, while the platform would also provide a financing gateway for other qualified C&I solar and battery energy storage developers and service providers.
Mr Yamoah said CIPA was engaging capital markets advisers and would follow the applicable Securities and Exchange Commission approval process, with the final size and timing of the programme depending on investor appetite and market conditions.
He said the programme would provide more financing options for factories, manufacturers, shopping centres and other commercial and industrial users through structures such as lease-to-own and Solar as a Service, enabling them to adopt solar without raising the capital upfront.
GNA
Edited by Linda Asante Agyei