Anzana Electric cash boost for small hydropower

Anzana Electric Group has secured US$20mn from British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution, to support the construction of run-of-river hydropower projects across Africa

 

The money will support Anzana to accelerate the development of small and medium-scale hydropower projects in East, Central and Southern Africa, with the first project expected to be in Zambia.

 

It expects to deliver 10MW of new distributed baseload generation capacity by 2030.

 

This is expected to generate more than 50GWh of clean electricity each year for national and regional power grids and high-demand centres.

 

“This facility is an important milestone for Anzana as we scale our platform across Africa and expand on our close partnership with BII,” said Brian Kelly, Anzana’s CEO.

 

“Through an end-to-end model spanning generation and distribution, including customer connections, we ensure consistent reliability and quality across the full power value chain. Our focus on strong governance, disciplined execution, and strategic corridor development allows us to deliver power where it is needed most while supporting national government objectives for sustained long-term economic growth.”

 

Run-of-river hydropower plays a niche role in expanding access to reliable, renewable electricity in Africa.

 

However, smaller projects under 10MW often struggle to secure long-term debt financing.

 

BII’s facility is designed to help address the challenge by reducing high upfront costs and long timelines usually associated with arranging project-specific financing.

 

“Africa faces a significant energy access gap, with nearly 600 million people without electricity,” said Chris Chijiutomi, BII’s managing director and head of Africa.

 

“We’re committed to working with partners like Anzana to support Mission 300 and provide electricity access to 300 million people in Africa by 2030. Through this financing, we’re helping countries transition to renewable power, strengthen electricity networks, and deliver clean, reliable energy to millions of households.”

 

The roll out of Anzana’s portfolio is also expected to create more than 500 jobs during construction and operations.

 

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