{"id":44564,"date":"2025-12-05T10:34:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T10:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/?p=44564"},"modified":"2025-12-05T10:34:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T10:34:29","slug":"project-preparation-from-concepts-to-bankability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/company-news\/project-preparation-from-concepts-to-bankability\/","title":{"rendered":"Project preparation: From concepts to bankability"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"dropcap dropcap2\">A<\/span>s the global infrastructure and energy transition agenda intensifies, many prospective projects stall in the earliest stages \u2014 well before they become \u201cbankable.\u201d To address this critical roadblock, the upcoming Infrastructure Africa Business Forum will bring together development finance institutions (DFIs), governments, developers, and transaction advisors to fast-track early-stage project development.<\/p>\n<h3>Why early-stage project preparation matters<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>According to the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), <strong>there is on average an\u00a08\u20139 year gap\u00a0between project identification and actual implementation<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Early-stage project preparation \u2014 including feasibility studies, environmental &amp; social assessments, and risk analyses \u2014 is often underfunded, leaving many projects \u201cunbankable.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>A recent IRENA analysis found that while well-structured renewable energy projects <em>can<\/em> reach financial close in <strong>6\u201315 months<\/strong>, many languish for years due to inadequate development funding.<\/li>\n<li>In Sub\u2011Saharan Africa, the lack of early-stage capital disproportionately affects local developers, who often rely on their own equity or grants, rather than structured financing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Early-stage bottlenecks highlighted<\/h3>\n<p>The event will shine a light on several common obstacles:<\/p>\n<h4><strong>1. Limited access to prefeasibility funding<\/strong><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>In the SADC region, only seven development finance institutions provide early-stage project preparation facilities.<\/li>\n<li>Only three cross-border project preparation facilities serve all 16 SADC countries: DBSA Project Preparation Facility, SADC Project Preparation Development Facility, and the Southern African Power Pool\u2019s Project Advisory Unit Fund.<\/li>\n<li>There are no dedicated regional facilities in SADC exclusively for renewable energy project preparation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>2. Lengthy, unstandardized approval processes<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Terms and conditions for accessing early-stage facilities vary wildly across DFIs, even within the same country.<\/li>\n<li>For many local developers, completing required prefeasibility work (before applying for funding) means stretching limited resources just to qualify.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>3. Capacity &amp; risk challenges<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Local developers often lack technical and financial expertise, making it difficult to structure and de-risk deals in ways that appeal to financiers.<\/li>\n<li>According to IRENA, 45% of projects submitted via its Energy Transition Accelerator Financing (ETAF) platform are rejected because they lack adequate readiness.<\/li>\n<li>Around 25% are rejected due to poor financial planning; of these, roughly half are turned down for inadequate equity commitment.<br \/>Financing Gap Despite Available Capital.<\/li>\n<li>Analysis by AGBI shows that although there is \u201ccapital ready to be deployed,\u201d there is a shortage of commercially viable, bankable climate projects, especially in developing markets.<\/li>\n<li>DFIs and donor-backed project preparation facilities are under-utilized or hard to access due to high capacity and procedural barriers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>How the Event Will Help<\/h3>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>Project Preparation: From Concepts to Bankability<\/strong>\u00a0event aims to address and de-risk these early-stage challenges through:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Strategic Partnerships<br \/><\/strong>Bringing together DFIs, governments, private developers, and technical partners to co-design and fund project preparation facilities.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Technical Assistance (TA)<br \/><\/strong>Offering targeted TA for feasibility studies, environmental and social impact assessments, and financial modeling. These services help de-risk projects and make them more attractive to investors.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Transaction Advisory Support<br \/><\/strong>Connecting projects with experienced transaction advisors who can help structure financing, negotiate offtake or PPA agreements, and align project structure with bankability criteria.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Capacity Building<br \/><\/strong>Building the skill sets of local developers to improve their bankability (technical, financial, legal know-how), reducing their reliance on external consultants.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Innovation in Financing Mechanisms<br \/><\/strong>Exploring or scaling up instruments such as Project Preparation Facilities (PPFs), Development Impact Bonds (DIBs), risk-sharing facilities, and blended finance.\n<ul>\n<li>Example: the DREAM programme in Ethiopia was funded with US$\u202f8 million via a PPF, helping bridge early-stage bottlenecks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>\u201cBridging the gap between project concept and bankability is our greatest challenge &#8211; without it, even the most promising projects never reach financial close,\u201d<\/em> stated Liz Hart, Managing Director of Infrastructure Africa. <em>\u201cThis event is about catalyzing deal flow: giving developers the tools, guidance and financing they need to make their projects investable.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/south-africa\/western-cape\/infrastructure-africa-2026\/\" style=\"background-color:#2b6e28\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Find out more<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:31px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-44375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Infrastructure-Africa-2026.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"905\" height=\"436\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Infrastructure-Africa-2026.jpg 905w, https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Infrastructure-Africa-2026-300x145.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Infrastructure-Africa-2026-768x370.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Infrastructure-Africa-2026-872x420.jpg 872w, https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Infrastructure-Africa-2026-150x72.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Infrastructure-Africa-2026-696x335.jpg 696w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 905px) 100vw, 905px\" \/><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many prospective projects stall in the earliest stages \u2014 well before they become \u201cbankable.\u201d To address this critical roadblock, the upcoming Infrastructure Africa Business Forum will bring together development finance institutions (DFIs), governments, developers, and transaction advisors to fast-track early-stage project development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":44575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[561,1964,3,58,24,66,1545,64,57,20,116,38,32,6],"tags":[82,70,484,1217,486,71,518,1922],"class_list":{"0":"post-44564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-focus","8":"category-business-news","9":"category-company-news","10":"category-construction-and-engineering","11":"category-government","12":"category-healthcare","13":"category-partner-content","14":"category-professional-services","15":"category-property-real-estate","16":"category-retail","17":"category-sadc","18":"category-south-africa","19":"category-telecommunications","20":"category-transportation-logistics","21":"tag-infrastructure","22":"tag-infrastructure-development","23":"tag-infrastructure-funding","24":"tag-infrastructure-investment","25":"tag-infrastructure-projects","26":"tag-project-development","27":"tag-project-management","28":"tag-project-preparation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44564"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44577,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44564\/revisions\/44577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalafricanetwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}