The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
ZIMBABWE will soon establish a Green Fund to help in the finance and development of renewable energy projects, with the Government anticipating the country should be generating 1 100 Mega Watts, 16,5 percent of its energy needs, through green sources by 2025.
This, alongside a raft of other innovative measures, was outlined in the National Renewable Energy Policy (NREP) approved by Cabinet recently after its presentation by the Industry and Commerce Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu, the chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Industrialisation and Export Development.
According to the NREP, the Green Fund would, in the first year of its inception, be administered by the Rural Electrification Fund in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.
“A separate clean energy Fund called Green Energy Fund of Zimbabwe shall be set up to extend financial assistance for setting up projects relating to new and renewable sources of energy and other sustainable energy projects such as Demand Side Management initiatives. For a period of one year from its inception, the Fund shall be administered by the Rural Electrification Fund (REF) and Ministry responsible for Finance shall also oversee the management of the Fund,” the document reads.
According to the policy document, the Green Fund will be inclusive, with input from Government, banks, foreign funding institutions and other relevant developmental partners.
“Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) who provide funding for all infrastructure projects in Zimbabwe, in the future shall be responsible for the management of the Green Energy Fund once the necessary institutional development and capacity building is undertaken to operate the Green Energy Fund. To operate the fund the bank will have representation from different funding partners including banks, development partners, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) and others.
“The agency shall be in charge of managing the Green Energy Fund, collaborating with domestic banks, foreign banks, development banks, multi-lateral institutions, and international donors and NGOs. It shall be responsible for defining the funding strategy, plans and budgets for Green Energy Fund. The dedicated Green Energy Fund shall be backed by the Government, and private institutions to finance (RE) Renewable Energy projects,” the document read.
The document stated that the Ministry of Energy and Power Development should have set down a roadmap on how to activate the fund within six months of the policy’s promulgation.
“The sources for this Fund can be financial resources and grants obtained from multi-lateral institutions, loans from development banks and international institutions, funds from development partners, local donors, revenue generated from the imposed carbon tax and penalty funds as well.
“Ministry responsible for Energy shall develop a detailed roadmap for creating this fund and collecting of carbon taxes, penalty funds among other measures, as well as highlight roles and responsibilities of inter-ministerial departments and other stakeholders, within six (6) months of notification of this policy.
“The Fund must not be used for other commercial purposes. This Fund shall act as a single window for receiving, co-ordinating and managing financial flows related to green energy projects in an efficient and systematic manner,” the document read.
