Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Access Transformation (ASCENT) PPF

The Accelerating Sustainable and Clean Energy Access Transformation (ASCENT) Programme is a World Bank-supported Multiphase Programmatic Approach (MPA) designed to expand energy access across the COMESA region. A central component of the ASCENT Programme is the Project Preparation Facility (PPF), hosted and managed within the COMESA Secretariat's Project Implementation Unit (PIU). The PPF is a US$ 25M facility, operational from 2026 to 2030.

The Facility was established to address a critical bottleneck in energy-access markets: the chronic under-investment in the project preparation activities that private-sector companies need to attract equity, debt, and results-based financing from private and public investors. By providing technical assistance and grants, the PPF helps promising distributed renewable energy (DRE) and clean cooking companies reach the stage where investors and lenders are ready to commit capital.