Key highlights:
- Investment boosts renewable energy capacity of African businesses, farmers and communities with affordable and modern tools, such as water pumps, refrigerators and milling machines.
- GEAPP and CLASP’s commitment enhances productivity, climate resilience, self-reliance – enabling access to 10,000 high-impact appliances – creating over 3,000 green jobs.
This week, CLASP, an international NGO, and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) announced a $6.1 million expansion of the Productive Use Financing Facility (PUFF), a catalytic initiative that increases access to energy-efficient, income-generating appliances across Africa.
The PUFF supports growing businesses, farmers, and communities in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya, to acquire up to 10,000 income-generating appliances, such as solar-powered refrigerators, water pumps, milling machines, and other agricultural tools, at more affordable prices.
The facility provides grants, subsidies, and technical assistance to suppliers and distributors, unlocking new business opportunities for local enterprises, and enabling them to meet rising demand for clean energy-powered appliances.
Small businesses, entrepreneurs and households can purchase modern, energy-efficient technologies at favourable prices, allowing them to grow.
The extension of PUFF builds on the success of a two-year pilot, which demonstrated the viability and increasing demand for productive use appliances across multiple African geographies. From 2022 to 2024, PUFF partnered with 24 companies across six emerging markets and developing countries (EMDEs).
The pilot initiative maximized distribution networks, demonstrated the effect of innovative business models, and brought around 16,000 appliances to market.
The programme strengthened local supply chains and expanded access to income-generating equipment, ultimately benefiting over 58,000 households and validating the market potential for pioneering green technologies.
“Access to energy is foundational for economic growth. Efficient appliances and equipment turn energy into opportunity and should be considered essential energy infrastructure, alongside renewables. PUFF’s pilot phase proved that targeted support can deliver material impact and positive change. With effective financing, companies can reach more people with the right appliances, and they can change lives,” said Emmanuel Aziebor, senior director for Africa at CLASP.
In the pilot, women made up nearly half of all appliance buyers. Households where women bought appliances saw a 94% increase in average income.
This extension will have an even greater focus on gender equality and youth empowerment by enhancing outreach and financing strategies that center the needs of women and young entrepreneurs. For example,
The PUFF pilot project enabled Abibat Akinwale, a shopkeeper in Nigeria, to buy an affordable solar-powered refrigerator, “We were buying ice blocks which led us to some debt, and after a while, the block would melt. We no longer had cold items for sale. The solar fridge has really increased sales. Business is very good now because I’m able to sell cold drinks.”
Building on their partnership to deepen access to affordable energy technologies, CLASP and GEAPP play an anchoring role in reshaping power markets in Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Kenya.
The new phase of PUFF will support local manufacturers, distributors, and service providers to scale up operations, reach new markets, and grow their customer base.
By enabling the sale and distribution of 10,000 high-impact appliances, PUFF 2.0 aims to catalyze enterprise growth, expand market availability of efficient technologies, and indirectly create over 3,000 green jobs across the value chain.
Despite their transformative potential, income-generating appliances are predominantly out of reach for many people, particularly low-income communities.
High costs and limited financing options make it difficult for businesses and households to afford them.
PUFF helps bridge that gap, especially in rural areas. The facility offers businesses the support needed to lower prices, reach more customers, and grow over time.
“While electrification has expanded, many investments fail to turn access into economic opportunity, with limited job creation or enterprise growth. Through initiatives such as PUFF 2.0 collaboration with CLASP, we are addressing these shortfalls by ensuring that new energy connections drive productivity and power agriculture, energizing ambition in small and medium sized enterprises, and output in local manufacturing. Increased incomes from these activities spur economic growth and wellbeing in growing communities, creating jobs and improving the quality of life,” said Makena Ireri, managing director for Productive Use of Energy at GEAPP.
PUFF 2.0 aligns with Mission 300, a public-private-philanthropic ambition led by the World Bank and the African Development Bank with support from GEAPP, the Rockefeller Foundation and SEforALL to connect 300 million people to electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030 while also driving economic growth and job creation.
