Energise Africa posts £270k profit as pandemic highlights ‘need for action’
Energise Africa reported a profit of £269,449 last year, as its chief executive said the pandemic had shown “the need for urgent action” on clean energy and climate change.
The ethical investment platform, whose legal entity is Lendahand Ethex, is a joint venture owned by European impact investing platforms Ethex and Lendahand.
It offers investors annual returns of up to six per cent for funding clean energy projects in Africa, which can be held in an Innovative Finance ISA wrapper.
As at 31 December 2020 it had just over £1.2m of cash and was owed around £1.38m from debtors, more than offsetting around £2.1m owed to its creditors, according to its latest accounts filed with Companies House.
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Lisa Ashford, chief executive and director at Ethex and Energise Africa, put last year’s profits down to the Covid-19 crisis highlighting the need for environmental, social and governance action.
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“2020 proved to be a positive year for Energise Africa (Lendahand Ethex) as the pandemic brought into sharp focus the need for urgent action when it comes to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (and in particular clean energy in emerging economies to support a vaccine roll-out) and tackling climate change,” said Ashford.
“Since the pandemic we’ve seen continued interest from ordinary people across the UK who want to take action with their money – investing for a better world.
“Our growing community of over 4,000 investors has enabled us to deliver more than £25m in investment, reducing 120,000 plus tonnes of CO2 a year and delivering affordable clean energy to more than 500,000 people.
“That’s a lot of money doing good and with the COP26 climate negotiations around the corner we’re on a mission to do much much more.
“Investors should be aware that investing puts their capital at risk and returns are not guaranteed.”
In February, Ethex and Energise Africa announced they had raised more than £100m in social impact investments since launching in 2013.
Ethex revealed it raised 20 per cent more investment for projects in 2020 compared with 2019.
Investors are becoming increasingly ethically-minded when it comes to choosing where to put their money. Recent research from metals exchange traded commodities provider Global Palladium Fund found that 47 per cent of UK retail investors plan to invest more cash in green companies and funds, covering industries such as electric vehicles and solar panels.
