AMP @ EAIF2026

This year, the Africa Minigrids Program (AMP) will be a strategic partner at the annual ARE Energy Access Investment Forum (EAIF), the premier event driving investment in renewable electrification. EAIF brings together stakeholders to accelerate energy access, productive use, commercial and industrial power solutions, and the broader green energy transition. Building on its success since 2016, EAIF 2026 will convene over 1,500 participants, with 500 attending in person and 1,000 online, and French and English interpretation available.

For AMP, this marks its third EAIF participation, following previous Community of Practice gatherings in Lagos, Nigeria and Kampala, Uganda, in 2025. The forum provides a platform to share lessons learned, highlight national project updates, and foster peer learning and network building among energy practitioners.

Two AMP events will be open to the public during the conference. Follow AMP on LinkedIn for updates and daily highlights throughout the week.

[WORKSHOP: Fundamentals to Minigrid Market Preparation: Understanding Success]

Led by UNDP, AMP, AfDB SEFA and IFC

Wednesday, 22 April 2025 | 10:00 – 17:30

Explore how Africa’s minigrid markets can move from early deployment to sustainable scale. This full-day workshop brings together developers, investors, regulators, and public-sector partners for interactive sessions on market preparation, financing, and technical frameworks. Learn from real-world experiences, test new solutions, and collaborate with key initiatives shaping the continent’s distributed energy future.

Minigrids session I: Setting the scene – Aligning the pathways to scale

10:00 – 10:45

To ground the workshop in the current realities of mini-grid markets in Africa, frame the key structural constraints limiting scale, and align stakeholders around the three interdependent pathways – developer execution, financing, and public-sector frameworks – that must evolve together to enable large-scale deployment.

The session will draw on recent industry perspectives, including AMDA’s “17 Actions,” to anchor the discussion in practitioner experience and highlight priority actions required from governments, investors, and industry to deliver mini-grids at scale under Mission 300.

Minigrids session II: From pipeline to deployment: Strengthening private-sector execution

11:15 – 12:30

To examine the operational and institutional constraints that prevent minigrid developers from converting prepared pipelines into scalable, bankable portfolios, and to explore how targeted, developer-focused technical assistance can address these execution gaps.

Building on lessons from earlier market development efforts, the session introduces AMAP 2.0 as a strategic shift from enabling environment reforms toward direct private-sector support. While significant progress has been made in market preparation (through site identification, feasibility studies, and regulatory improvements) these have not translated into deployment at scale. The binding constraint has increasingly shifted to developer execution capacity, including financial structuring, transaction readiness, governance, and leadership.

The session will position AMAP 2.0 as a delivery-focused mechanism designed to strengthen developer capability, accelerate portfolio build-out, and improve the conversion of pipelines into financed and operational mini-grids. It will also situate this approach within the broader objective of mobilising private capital at scale under Mission 300, highlighting how targeted support to developers must be complemented by appropriate financing structures and enabling public-sector frameworks.

Minigrids session III: Financing architecture for scale

13:30 – 15:30

To examine how financing structures must evolve to mobilise capital at scale for minigrid deployment, grounded in real developer experience and aligned with investor risk requirements. The session moves from practical case studies of companies that have successfully raised capital, to a broader discussion on financing models and market architecture, and finally to a candid dialogue with financiers on what is truly bankable.

By structuring the session across three parts – developer experience, market evolution, and investor perspective – it aims to bridge the gap between how developers approach financing and how capital providers assess risk, enabling a more realistic pathway to portfolio-scale investment.

Minigrids session IV: Integrated electrification systems: The evolving role of minigrids

15:30 – 17:30

To examine how energy sector planning, regulatory frameworks, and financing mechanisms, particularly Results-Based Financing (RBF), can evolve to position minigrids as essential infrastructure within integrated energy systems, enabling more flexible, service-oriented delivery models while remaining grounded in current developer realities.

As minigrids take on an expanding role beyond energy access, there is growing recognition that they can contribute to grid reliability, climate resilience, and economic development. However, existing planning, procurement, and financing approaches remain largely technology-specific and project-based, limiting their ability to support integrated, demand-driven solutions. At the same time, there is increasing pressure to move toward more flexible, service-oriented models (Energy-as-a-Service), yet most developers remain early-stage and constrained by current market structures. This session will explore how public-sector frameworks can better align with both current realities and emerging directions in the sector.

[SIDE EVENT: Coffee Corner: Women in Clean Energy Celebration]

Hosted by RMI and AMP

Wednesday, 22 April 2025 | 13:00 – 14:00

Join RMI and AMP for a post-lunch event celebrating and amplifying the voices of women in clean energy. Hear from leaders driving the energy transition, within the Africa Minigrids Program and beyond, and discover the latest updates on RMI’s capacity-building initiatives supporting women across Sub-Saharan Africa.