Abu Dhabi Fund for Development ends 2020 with Dhs117.3m worth of projects

The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) completed five renewable energy projects worth Dhs117.3m in 2020, despite Covid-19 headwinds.

The projects injected 14.38MW into the electric grids of five partner countries, including Cuba, Somaliland, the Bahamas, Barbados, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

In January of last year, the fund announced an allocation of approximately Dhs384 million ($104.5m) to eight renewable-energy initiatives under the seventh cycle of its partnership with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

The ADFD also signed three loan agreements worth Dhs121m ($3m) with the West African nations of Togo, Niger and Liberia. In July, it financed a waste-to-energy project in the Maldives, which earned a certification from Global Innovation Institute (GINI), an international professional certification, accreditation and membership association in the field of innovation.

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Under the facility, eight projects were to be funded in Antigua and Barbuda, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cuba, the Maldives, Nepal, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The announcement brought cumulative funding to Dhs1.28bn ($350m), in line with the commitment made by ADFD across seven funding cycles to IRENA recommended projects.

ADFD also invests through the Dhs183.65 million ($50m) UAE-Caribbean Renewable Energy Fund (UAE-CREF) that it finances to deliver renewable energy projects across 16 Caribbean Island nations to help reduce reliance on fossil-fuel imports, increase energy access and enhance climate change resilience. Launched in 2017, the UAE-CREF is the largest renewable energy initiative of its kind in the Caribbean region.

“We doubled our effort to ensure that we delivered the projects to our partner countries, especially during such a time of crisis,” said Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, director-general of ADFD. “The aim was to help them maintain their economic and social-development trajectories by enabling them to meet developmental challenges during the pandemic. These projects also underscored the fund’s preparedness and ability to deal with any difficulties,” he added.