Reflections on the Productive Use Financing Facility

The Productive Use Financing Facility (the Financing Facility), an innovative program implemented by CLASP and supported by the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (the Alliance), makes energy-efficient appliances more affordable to consumers and businesses in emerging markets in Africa. As the Financing Facility celebrates its first anniversary and concludes the initial phase of this expanded program, we reflect on the lives and communities it has already transformed. We also look at the road ahead and remain dedicated to our goals of helping to generate green jobs and equitable opportunities for thousands across Africa.

Empowering communities with the right tools 

A single appliance has the potential to improve the quality of life for an entire household or community. A female entrepreneur with access to an off-grid refrigerator can sell cold beverages, attracting customers and increasing her income. A solar-powered mill can provide a central flour-processing location for a group of smallholder farmers in a remote community, allowing them to sell new products and avoid transportation costs and drudgery.

Despite the potential of these technologies, many businesses and households that need them can’t afford them due to high costs and limited financing. For the 750 million–plus people worldwide who live without access to electricity and the approximately 700 million living in extreme poverty, energy-efficient appliances are still out of reach.

The Financing Facility’s role in driving access and opportunity 

The Financing Facility offers a solution: make these life-changing appliances more affordable to those who need them. By providing grants, subsidies, and technical assistance, the Financing Facility enables small businesses, entrepreneurs, and households to purchase energy-efficient appliances at lower prices.

The initiative launched a two-year pilot project that ran from 2022 to 2024, working with 24 companies across six countries, deploying nearly 16,000 appliances, and directly improving the lives of over 58,000 households. In June 2025, the Financing Facility entered a second phase with the announcement of its expansion and a $6.1 million USD funding boost. During this phase, the initiative aims to create over 3,000 green jobs through the sale and use of over 10,000 appliances in four years.

One year on: expanding reach and impact 

The new cohort of 11 appliance companies, announced in November 2025, still focuses on productive-use appliances (in other words, technologies people use to generate income) like grain mills, solar water pumps, walk-in cold rooms, and refrigerator/freezers. From this cohort alone, the Financing Facility aims to deploy over 2,000 appliances across Kenya to women-owned and -led businesses.

The second cohort selection, launching in February 2026, will be open to appliance companies in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Kenya. CLASP will announce and detail the process via the Financing Facility web page,  LinkedIn and Bluesky.

Committed to the most underserved communities 

Although electrification has expanded around the globe, energy demand is necessary to justify and maintain expensive infrastructure. Programs like the Financing Facility help get appliances into people’s hands, energizing ambition and output amongst local businesses and farms. The increased incomes from these activities can help drive economic growth, generate jobs, and improve quality of life—giving people greater opportunity to thrive. For small business owner Helen Obinna in Nigeria, for example, a solar refrigerator completely changed her business: since her refrigerator can keep products cool despite inconsistent power, sales of cold beverages have increased.

While electrification is expanding globally, deliberate efforts must be channeled into boosting energy demand to ensure the sustainability and commercial viability of renewable energy infrastructure. Programs like the Financing Facility place appliances into people’s hands, energizing ambition and output amongst local businesses and farms. Increased incomes from these activities drive economic growth, create jobs, and improve the quality of life, giving communities the tools to thrive.

About the Productive Use Financing Facility

The Financing Facility is an innovative program that provides grants, subsidies, and technical assistance to suppliers and distributors to lower appliance prices and reach more customers. This makes it easier for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and households to buy energy-efficient technologies, such as solar water pumps, mills, and refrigerators, at favorable prices.

This program is supported by the Global Alliance for People and Planet .

For more information, read the Productive Use Financing Facility 2.0 press release, contact financing@clasp.ngo, and follow us on LinkedIn for regular updates on how the Financing Facility is benefiting people and our planet.

About CLASP

CLASP is the leading global authority on efficient appliances’ role in fighting climate change and improving people’s lives. With 25 years of expertise and offices on four continents, CLASP collaborates with policymakers, industry leaders, and other experts to deliver clear pathways to a more sustainable world for people and the planet.

About the Global Alliance for People and Planet

The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet works for a world where everyone has access to affordable, reliable, clean electricity and the means to use it to improve their lives. Our Alliance builds transformative public, private, philanthropic partnerships to end energy poverty and accelerate green economic opportunity. Founded in 2021 by The Rockefeller Foundation, IKEA Foundation, and Bezos Earth Fund, we unlock finance, strengthen institutions and transform markets, delivering progress anchored in deep community engagement. By uniting actors across the value chain, from households to heads of state, we go beyond individual projects to drive lasting systems change. With work in more than 30 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, our Alliance aims to reach 1 billion people with clean electricity, prevent 4 billion tons of carbon emissions and create or improve 150 million jobs. For more information, please visit www.energyalliance.org and follow us on X at @EnergyAlliance.