Haiti is likely to attract more and more solar off-grid companies in 2020!

Haiti’s growing energy needs combined with low electrification rates are creating unique opportunities for dynamic off-grid companies. Off-grid companies can benefit from an expanding consumer market and a comprehensive support infrastructure established by the Haitian Government, in close partnership with the World Bank and with funding support from the Clean Technology Fund.

The USD 17.22 million Off-Grid Electricity Fund (OGEF) was launched in March 2019 with the goal of
providing equity and debt financing and market development support to commercially viable
businesses and enterprises that can provide modern energy services in rural and peri-urban areas of
Haiti. OGEF is also setting up a Results-Based Financing (RBF) grant scheme for solar distributors
which will be launched in 2020 to further accelerate market penetration.

OGEF is co-managed by Bamboo Capital Partners (BCP), a global impact investment firm with
extensive experience in energy access, and Fonds de Développement Industriel (FDI, Industrial
Development Fund in English), a Haitian development finance institution. A dedicated team on the
ground and international experts in energy access actively support companies to establish and grow
operations in Haiti. The OGEF team will be part of the Haitian delegation at the Global Off-Grid Solar
Forum and Expo in Nairobi from 18 th to 20 th February, 2020 to engage with interested businesses,
stakeholders and potential partners.

This is why OGEF and his partners believe there is a large opportunity in Haiti for solar distributors:

✓ Haiti is a country of 12 million people with a 5% rural electrification rate. GDP per capita stands
at USD 868 as of 2018 (higher than in several comparatively developed off-grid markets in
Africa).
✓ Remittances flow to Haiti reached USD 3.2 billion in 2018 providing rural markets with liquidity
and potential earnings in hard currency for distributors.
✓ Solar kits and panels are import duty exempt.
✓ There is a thriving solar rooftop market due to the dire state of the public utility company;
recent fuel shortages have further negatively impacted the fossil fuel-based generation both on-
grid and off-grid, driving more and more Haitians to solar – including urban and peri-urban
populations.
✓ There are only a few existing solar distributors in Haiti which is partly due to the fact that there
was no support infrastructure in the past and partly due to the geographic isolation of Haiti far
away from other off-grid markets in Sub-Saharan Africa; hence, solar distributors today face little
market penetration and competition in Haiti.
✓ An RBF grant scheme for solar distributors (focus on Tier 1 access) is currently being developed
by OGEF and expected to be launched late 2020.
✓ OGEF is ready to invest equity and debt in solar distributors in Haiti with the goal of helping
companies to grow their operations and creating a thriving off-grid energy sector.

OGEF is ready to invest. There is no better time for solar distributors in Haiti than now and we
encourage Forum participants to engage with OGEF and seize this window of opportunity.

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