South Africa’s National Treasury has launched the Energy Bounce Back Loan Guarantee Scheme (EBB) to help small businesses and households deal with the impact of load shedding. The scheme aims to generate an additional 1 000MW in generation capacity and facilitate resilience to power outages for micro and informal businesses. Loans under the EBB will be priced at the repo rate plus a maximum of 6%. The government will assume initial losses of 20%, with finance providers taking on the remaining risk. The EBB will operate through three mechanisms, including loans for rooftop solar and working capital loans for rooftop solar suppliers.
