Empowering Southern Africa (ESA)

$45.4M USD

Funder	U.S. Agency for International Development
Recipient Organization	Chemonics International, Inc.
Country	Sub-Saharan Africa Region
Start Date	Jun 18, 2025
End Date	Sep 26, 2027
Duration	830 days
Number of Grantees	28
Roles	Recipient
Data Source	US Foreign Aid
Grant ID	`224434-76`

Grant Description

Power Africas Empower Southern Africa (ESA) program seeks to increase the availability of and access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and clean energy in Southern Africa with an investment into Power Africas Regional Development Objective Agreement with the African Development Bank and buy-ins from USAID Missions in Southern Africa.

The award's combined on- and beyond-the-grid approach will provide targeted advisory services, catalytic grants, and investment mobilization to a range of energy sector institutions.

ESA will connect African homes, businesses, and institutions to electricity; reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector by supporting cleaner electricity generation delivered by the grid and accelerating distributed renewable energy; and, working in partnership with African governments, improve the enabling environment for energy sector investment and innovation.

The activity anticipates supporting up to 3 million new electricity connections over the next five years, and by the end of the project, 14 million tCO2e will be avoided or mitigated as a result of this assistance.