Founded in 1948, CDC Group is the UK government-owned development finance institution. It supports investing in businesses throughout Africa and South Asia, to create jobs and make a lasting difference to people’s lives. CDC provides capital in many forms, including equity, debt, mezzanine and guarantees, and this capital is typically used to fund growth. CDC aims to invest where job creation focus can have the greatest impact – in countries where the private sector is less developed and jobs are scarce and in sectors where growth leads to jobs, both directly and indirectly – such as manufacturing, agribusiness, infrastructure, financial institutions, construction, health and education.
CDC has a long heritage in power in Africa and elsewhere; it was an investor and lender to a number of landmark power projects in the 1980s-1990s including Olkaria geothermal power in Kenya and Azito in Côte d’Ivoire. CDC created Globeleq in 2002 from its portfolio of power investments; Globeleq Africa, Africa’s leading IPP company with eight operational power plants totalling 1,250MW in five countries, has been under CDC Group’s direct control since late 2015, with ambitions to substantially increase new power capacity.