Business
AfDB Gets $20m Investment For Energy Inclusion
African Development Bank (AfDB) says it has received $20m investment from the Clean Technology Fund for the Facility for Energy Inclusion.
The bank, in a statement last Wednesday, said the Facility for Energy Inclusion was sponsored by the AfDB to provide sustainable financing for small-scale renewables in Africa.
According to the bank, “FEI is a $500m financing platform whose objective is to catalyse financial support for innovative energy access solutions
“FEI on-grid, a targeted $400m fund, supports improved energy access through the development of small-scale renewable energy generation and mini-grids across Africa, while the Off-Grid Energy Access Fund, a targeted $100m fund, supports off-grid energy distribution companies and boosts their long-term capacity to access capital markets at scale”.
AfDB said the CTF investment was composed of a $4m junior equity tranche and a $16m senior concessional loan.
It said the $20m investment would be drawn from the Dedicated Private Sector Program III, which was designed to provide risk-appropriate capital to finance high-impact , large-scale private sector projects in clean technologies.
The Director of Climate Change and Green Growth , AfDB , Mr Anthony Nyong, said the funds would contribute to economic and social growth and enhance its recipients’ resilience to the effects of negative climate change.
Nyong said, “Access to affordable and reliable energy has huge benefits at various levels of any society. Most of the 600 million people estimated to lack access to modern energy services in sub -Saharan Africa are also among the most vulnerable to the disastrous consequences of climate change”.
He added that the FEI was expected to contribute to the installation of around 600 megawatts of renewable energy projects across different African countries.
According to him, the move will stop over 30 million tonnes of carbondioxide equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions over a period of 20 years while yielding positive gender and social outcomes.
Cornerstone of Financial Services
A survey of more than 1 000 global finance leaders undertaken by digital payment network Ripple shows that 72% of respondents believe they need to offer a digital asset solution to remain competitive.
According to Ripple, leaders from the banking, fintech, corporate and asset management sector have made it clear that the “digital asset revolution is happening now”.
“Digital assets are quickly becoming a cornerstone of financial services, underpinned by progressive regulation, growing interest from Tier-1 banks, a steady consumer shift from banks to fintech providers, and booming stablecoin adoption,” Ripple says.
The survey was conducted in early 2026 and the findings released in March.
Stablecoin Boon or Bane?
Ripple has experienced significant success in the stablecoin sector since launching its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in 2024.
With a market cap of $1.56 billion, it is considered a major regulated player in the market.
No doubt the platform was pleased to learn through its own survey that financial leaders were most bullish about stablecoins.
Roughly three-quarters of respondents believed they could boost cash-flow efficiency and unlock trapped working capital.
Ripple noted that finance leaders were thinking about stablecoins as more than “just a new way to execute payments”; instead, they viewed them as effective tools for treasury management.
In March 2026, Ripple began testing a new trade finance model built around RLUSD in a bid to increase the speed of cross-border payments.
The pilot initiative, developed alongside supply chain finance company Unloq [https://unloq.com], is running on the XRP Ledger inside a testing framework developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The Asian city-state is one of the platform’s biggest growth markets.
The idea behind the project is to see whether stablecoin-based settlement can streamline trade finance, too often hampered by reliance on intermediaries and slow reconciliation.
The only potential drawback is that if the initiative takes off, the Ripple to USD price could be negatively affected.
Ripple has always championed its native XRP token as a bridge asset, the “middleman” in the process of a financial institution turning dollars in the US into pounds in the UK, for example.
Ripple converts dollars into XRP and then back into pounds.
If RLUSD can do exactly the same thing, questions will be asked about XRP’s relevance.
That is a bridge Ripple will have to cross if it gets to that point.
Tokenisation Partners
Another interesting finding from Ripple’s survey is that most banks and asset managers are seeking tokenisation partners to help execute their strategies.
Some 89% of respondents said digital asset storage and custody were top priority. “Token servicing/lifecycle management also ranks highly for banks at 82%, while asset managers place greater emphasis on primary distribution at 80%,” Ripple found.
The survey also revealed that just more than half of fintechs and financial institutions want an infrastructure provider that can offer a “one-stop-shop solution”. This rose to 71% among corporate financial leaders.
Ripple attributes this to institutions and firms wanting uncomplicated, cohesive systems.
Infrastructure Rules
In its final analysis, Ripple says companies across the board are looking for partners and solutions that are “secure, compliant, battle-tested and that enable growth and execution”.
“The message is clear: infrastructure decisions made today will shape competitive positioning tomorrow.”
No surprise that this is precisely where Ripple is placing much of its focus.
