Global development lenders and asset manager Ninety One have locked in an $88.6 million financing package to build a 100-megawatt solar plant in Ghana. The deal targets high energy costs choking West African factories, bringing cleaner, cheaper electricity directly to more than 95 industrial tenants operating in the country’s primary export corridors.

The Emerging Africa & Asia Infrastructure Fund, a private infrastructure development group company managed by Ninety One, committed $18.15 million in senior secured debt. That commitment splits into $15.65 million from the infrastructure fund and $2.5 million from Ninety One’s Africa Credit Opportunities strategy, backing locally owned LMI Holdings.

Bypassing state utility risks

The International Finance Corp. anchored the transaction with a $24.2 million direct loan, working alongside Ninety One and the World Bank’s International Development Association to mobilize $60.6 million in total debt. LMI Holdings rounded out the capital stack by injecting $28 million in direct equity into the first phase of a planned 200-megawatt buildout.

Lenders structured the corporate facility through two LMI subsidiaries: generation vehicle Solar for Industries Limited and Enclave Power Company Limited. As Ghana’s only licensed private electricity distributor, Enclave Power strips out traditional state off-taker risk, creating a commercial template for private utility-scale clean energy across sub-Saharan Africa.

Powering Ghana’s export engine

Once operational, the ground-mounted photovoltaic facility in Dawa will generate 129.5 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually. Enclave Power will wheel that clean output roughly 40 kilometers across the national grid under a formal transmission agreement, feeding energy-hungry factories inside the Tema Free Zone and the neighboring Dawa Industrial Zone.

Exports account for roughly 35 percent of Ghana’s gross domestic product, making reliable electricity vital for local manufacturers of steel, cement and processed cocoa. Cutting power bills and indirect carbon emissions gives these exporters stronger green credentials and sharper pricing power when competing for contracts in regional and global markets.

“Ghana’s clean energy transition is also an investment in the country’s industrial growth and competitiveness,” said Nathalie Kouassi Akon, IFC division director for West Africa Gulf of Guinea. She noted that lower electricity costs directly expand factory capacity to boost production and create jobs.

Scaling private clean energy

The Dawa buildout directly advances Ghana’s Renewable Energy Master Plan, which targets lifting renewables to 10 percent of the national generation mix by 2030. It also aligns with the Private Infrastructure Development Group’s 2030 strategy to crowd private institutional capital into emerging market climate infrastructure.

“This transaction highlights EAAIF’s commitment to financing transition infrastructure that accelerates green growth and delivers affordable, reliable power to Ghana’s manufacturing heartland,” said Martijn Proos, co-head of emerging market alternative credit at Ninety One. The deal marks a major step up in private sector energy deployment.

LMI Holdings is scaling up after proving the commercial viability of its 16.8-megawatt Helios Solar rooftop installation in Tema. Founder and CEO Kojo Aduhene said the new Dawa plant represents a structural shift in Ghana’s power sector, proving private innovation can drive sustainable industrial growth.