The 2025 Energy Sustainability and Leadership Conference (ESLC), held on 25th August at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra, convened policymakers, private sector leaders, and climate finance experts to discuss Ghana’s pathway to a sustainable energy future. Delivering the keynote on behalf of the Minister for Energy and Green Transition, Ing. Seth Mahu Agbeve, Director of the Renewable Energy and Green Transition Directorate at the Ministry of Energy, emphasized that companies failing to integrate renewable energy and ESG standards risk obsolescence in the face of tightening global trade rules. He outlined the Ministry’s bold steps to establish a Renewable Energy Authority and launch a $3.4 billion Renewable Energy Action Plan to expand net metering, EV charging, solar street lighting, and utility-scale renewables.
Kwaku Osei-Sarpong, Founder of CIPA Holdings Group, and recipient of the Rising Star of the Year award at the 2024 Ghana Energy Awards, delivered a strong call for innovative financial solutions to overcome Ghana’s longstanding challenges in green infrastructure financing. Recently featured with CIPA in Forbes Africa’s 2025 Special Focus on Ghana, Osei-Sarpong underscored that Ghana’s net-zero ambitions will succeed or fail on how effectively the country mobilizes and structures capital.
Osei-Sarpong highlighted the structural challenges facing Ghana’s financial market, beginning with the government’s limited fiscal space under IMF program constraints, which reduces its ability to fund large-scale projects. He further noted that commercial banks, with lending rates ranging between 20–30% in Ghana cedis and 7–12% in USD financing from DFIs, offer short repayment tenors that are ill-suited for climate-sensitive investments. Compounding the issue is the lack of patient capital required to support the “triple bottom line” nature of green projects: balancing people, planet, and profit. He stressed that these bottlenecks have slowed progress on renewable energy, electromobility, and public infrastructure, despite Ghana’s abundant potential.
One of the most urgent points raised was the underutilization of domestic capital pools. Ghanaian pension funds, which collectively manage billions of cedis, currently invest heavily in government bonds and low-risk treasuries. Similarly, the Ghana Stock Exchange has yet to fully embrace green bonds and ESG-linked instruments as mainstream financing tools.
“When it comes to green energy financing, it’s not so much about going to get new money,” Osei-Sarpong said. “It’s about how do we leverage and structure existing capital to suit the transition.”
As a front-runner in clean energy and infrastructure, CIPA Holdings Group has emerged as a trusted partner to governments, DFIs, and private investors. Under Osei-Sarpong’s leadership, the company has developed a reputation for structuring climate-resilient projects that align with both national development priorities and global sustainability targets.
At the conference, he outlined several practical models that can help Ghana close its green financing gap:
- Project Finance via Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs): Ring-fencing project revenues to make deals bankable, even for SMEs.
- Blended Finance: Combining concessional capital from DFIs with private sector funding to reduce risk and lower borrowing costs.
- Lease-to-Own & PAYGO Models: Successful private-sector models that have accelerated solar adoption in both commercial and residential markets.
- Green Bonds & Carbon Finance: Leveraging ESG-linked instruments to attract international institutional capital.
- Mobilizing Pension Funds: Advocating for a 5–10% allocation of pension fund capital toward bankable green projects via regulated private equity channels.
Beyond his role at CIPA, Osei-Sarpong has been honored among Africa’s 100 Most Influential Young Leaders and received Ghana’s 40 Under 40 Award in the climate and environmental category. These accolades underscore CIPA’s reputation as a front-runner in Ghana’s clean energy and infrastructure sector, and his influence as a trusted voice shaping Africa’s sustainable future.
Osei-Sarpong’s intervention directly complements the Ministry’s $3.4 billion Renewable Energy Action Plan, reinforcing the shared priority of unlocking climate finance for projects such as net metering, EV charging, solar street lighting, and utility-scale renewables.
“Green financing must shift from being a constraint to becoming Ghana’s competitive advantage,” he concluded. “At CIPA, we are committed to mobilizing climate capital and structuring deals that not only deliver power, but also drive industrial growth and inclusive development.”
CIPA Holdings Group is a pan-African infrastructure holding company dedicated to delivering climate-resilient solutions that power trade, productivity, and inclusive growth. Headquartered in Accra, CIPA operates across clean energy, electromobility, digital infrastructure, agriculture, public works, and sustainable real estate. Recognized as a trusted partner to governments, DFIs, banks, and private investors, CIPA aligns its projects with SDGs, national priorities, and Africa’s net-zero transition.
