Apalia 24, Democratic Republic of Congo

To support Apalia in deploying off-grid hybrid energy, telecoms and media (TV and Radio) in rural sub-Saharan Africa. Apalia’s first operation is sited in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Introduction

To support Apalia in deploying off-grid hybrid energy, telecoms and media (TV and Radio) in rural sub-Saharan Africa. Apalia’s first operation is sited in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Apalia’s objective is to uplift communities in off-grid and weakgrid areas through the provision of clean renewable energy associated with added-value services. Their initial offering is PayTV contents combined with PayGo Solar home systems. This project has registered more than 1 200 subscribers, with the business expecting to reach 3 000 subscribers by September 2021.

Project Financing
Public
E&S Risk category
Category 3
DBSA Involvement
  • Improve access to information (mobile phone, TV/Radio by Select Horizontal Spacing)
  • Environmental benefits of using clean solar energy
  • Creation of jobs and opportunities for social interaction
  • Facilitate access to financial services such as mobile money (rural unbanked)
  • Financial savings – reduced expenditure on kerosene lighting/travel time/mobile charging
  • Improved access to education (extra and better-quality lighting hours – lower school dropout rates)
  • Improved safety and health (less reliance on kerosene lanterns)
Sustainability impact

This project seeks to achieve proof of concept prior to scaling up to illustrate commercial viability of the pay-as-you-go model and to catalyse commercial financing. Main accomplishments to date include:

  • Launching operations in Bumba and Kenge (north-east of Kinshasa) in July 2020
  • Successfully ramping up its customer base from 0 to over 1 200 households in less than six months in 2020. On its way to reaching more than 3 000 subscribing households by September 2021
  • A project information memorandum has been completed and is being presented to potential shareholders
  • Increasing physical presence in four hubs by the end of 2021
  • Approximately USD5 million financing to be invested through convertible instruments to scale up to 12 000 units by the end of 2021
Stats
Launching operations

in Bumba and Kenge (north-east of Kinshasa) in July 2020

Customer base

Successfully ramping up its customer base from 0 to over 1 200 households in less than six months in 2020. On its way to reaching more than 3 000 subscribing households by September 2021

Project information memorandum

has been completed and is being presented to potential shareholders

USD5 million

financing to be invested through convertible instruments to scale up to 12 000 units by the end of 2021

Physical presence

four hubs by the end of 2021