Corporate Lending Study - MENA

The Green for Growth Fund (GGF) is a public-private partnership established to promote energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) in the MENA region. To accomplish its objectives, GGF is mainly focused on providing dedicated financing to businesses and households through partnerships with financial institutions or direct financing to EE/RE projects. Currently, the GGF is exploring new growth segments in EE/RE markets and identifying the lending potential for enabling direct investments in the MENA region.   Econoler was hired to help GGF better understand the existing corporate asset lending models and the potential for GGF to finance EE/RE investments in four MENA countries, namely Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.

Econoler was hired to implement a two-phase project to conduct targeted, opportunity-driven research to help GGF understand the markets for corporate lending to EE/RE in the four countries mentioned above. In Phase 1, Econoler conducted a comprehensive survey of the current status of the debt asset financing market in each country and made a detailed assessment of existing sources of financing (both domestic and international ones), the corporate structures of local businesses, and prevailing asset debt financing models and practices. The market survey also involved analyzing the overall economic status and development dynamics in each of the four countries and making a brief overview of the regulatory and institutional “green” financing frameworks. According to the project implementation plan agreed on, GGF was to make a final decision on whether or not to implement the project’s Phase 2 after reviewing and analyzing the findings from Econoler’s market survey.     According to the project implementation plan, Phase 2 would be carried out in two selected countries with the most mature debt-financing market conditions, where GGF could try to directly extend financing to “green” projects. However, after accepting Econoler’s market survey report and assessing the current market situation in the four countries, GGF decided not to implement Phase 2 and decided to close the project upon completion of Phase 1.