The New Development Bank, a financial institution created by the Brics bloc, is struggling to find viable projects to fund as part of its $3 billion pledge for South Africa’s Just Energy Transition initiative. “We need bankable projects that have gone through due diligence processes and there’s a shortage,” Leslie Maasdorp, chief financial officer at the NDB, said in an interview in Johannesburg. “That is the constraint that we face.
The outages, which sometimes last as long as 12 hours a day, have hurt business productivity and economic growth. The central bank in July said sustained reduction in the power cuts locally known as load shedding, or greater energy supply from alternative sources, would significantly boost growth. Energy is the single-biggest focus for the NDB in South Africa as it poses the greatest threat to growth in the country, according Maasdorp. “We want to be part of the solution,” he said.