Facility for Energy Inclusion: the new platform for financing small-scale renewables in Africa

João Duarte Cunha is Manager for the Renewable Energy Initiatives division at the African Development Bank (AfDB) with oversight on business development, co-financing and partner engagement, and leading on new blended finance initiatives such as the Facility for Energy Inclusion (FEI). João was previously the Bank’s Chief Climate Finance Officer and coordinator of its clean energy initiatives, including the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), Scaling-up Renewable Energy Programme (SREP) and Clean Technology Fund (CTF). Prior to joining AfDB in 2008, João worked with access to finance, business development and investment facilitation with US, Swedish and Portuguese bilateral development and trade agencies, with a focus on climate compatible investments. João holds an MA in Economics with Environmental Studies from Edinburgh University, and an MSc in Development Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Hugo van Tilborg is a French and Dutch national with a Civil Engineering degree from Imperial College, London, and Master's Degree in European Public Policy from the College of Europe. His professional experience has led him to work for the Dutch Government (Ministry of Transport and Public Works, Dutch Embassy in Washington DC, Ministry of Foreign Affairs), the German International Cooperation Agency (GIZ, in Benin and Morocco) on infrastructure issues in developing countries. Since joining the European Commission in 2012, Hugo van Tilborg has been assigned as Head of the Infrastructure Section of the EU Delegation in Senegal and The Gambia where he was responsible for the implementation of water, sanitation, energy, transport and urban development projects financed by the European Union as well as launching the first projects with the EIB and the AfDB under the new EU blended finance frameworks. He is now posted in Abidjan where the focus of the infrastructure portfolio is on the energy sector, as well as strengthening the ties with the African Development Bank.

Clemens is the Co-CEO and founding partner of Lion’s Head. He currently runs the Nairobi office which he set up in 2013. He focuses his time on overseeing Lion’s Head Asset Management operations and is responsible for Risk Oversight as well as the firm’s overall strategic development. Over the past 10 years Clemens has been involved in advisory activities across a number of sectors, including financial services, renewable energy and agriculture.Prior to setting up Lion’s Head, Clemens spend 13 years in investment banking, first at Morgan Stanley and then at Goldman Sachs. He worked in London, Singapore and New York and was responsible for executing a number of large structured and commodity backed financings. Clemens holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and a Master’s in Business Administration from INSEAD, Fontainebleau.

Jonathan joined Fieldstone in 2006, and has over 30 years of investment banking experience, focussed mainly on emerging markets and the energy, infrastructure and commodities sectors. He has worked across much of sub-Saharan Africa, advising the firm’s public and private sector clients on corporate and project financings, funds, and strategic issues. Prior to joining Fieldstone, he was Managing Director and head of Global Markets for Deutsche Bank South Africa, in which role he was also CEO of Deutsche Bank AG Johannesburg branch and responsible for business development across the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. Before this Jonathan spent 17 years with Barclays, based successively in London, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York and Johannesburg. During his nine years in Asia, he completed many pioneering project, acquisition, export credit and capital market financings across the region, followed by three years as Director, Investment Banking for the US Power and Utilities sector. From 2001 to 2004 he founded and headed Barclays’ pan-African Merchant Banking business, which completed transactions in 12 countries across the continent and was named "Debt House of the Year" by Euromoney. During this time Jonathan represented Barclays in the establishment of the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund. Jonathan was a non-Executive Director of the Bond Exchange of South Africa from 2003-9, and oversaw BESA’s merger with the JSE.   He maintains a keen interest in local currency debt market development across Africa, having advised on or arranged significant issues in Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. He holds a BA (Hons) from Oxford University.