Pakistan Private Sector Energy Webinar Brings Together Public-Private Clean Energy Stakeholders for Sindh Scale-Up

Pakistan Private Sector Energy Project

Spotlight on Sindh: Opportunities for Clean Energy Financing

Overview: Potential of Sindh in Green Energy Transition

The Southern province of Sindh was found to be a priority province by the Pakistan Private Sector Energy project scoping study due to its potential to drive the green transition forward in Pakistan, as it has rich wind, solar and waste to energy resources as well as an emerging clean energy infrastructure. One of the fastest growing cities in the world and Pakistan’s economic hub, Karachi, is particularly vulnerable, due to its coastal location, which makes climate mitigation a priority.

PPSE and Spotlight on Sindh

Building clean energy infrastructure within Pakistan’s provinces by helping entrepreneurs get investor ready and access financing is a focus area for the PPSE project. Aiming to bring greater finance access to green entrepreneurs, PPSE project conducted a Sindh-centric energy event on 30th September 2021, 2:00 pm (Pakistan Time).

The U.S. government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), joined with the Pakistani government to launch the Pakistan Private Sector Energy (PPSE) initiative to promote private sector investment in clean energy in Sindh province. The virtual launch event brought together national and provincial government stakeholders, business leaders and investors, USAID representatives, and other technical experts to unveil the new effort and highlight opportunities for energy companies to strengthen their operations, promote Pakistan’s green transition, and expand economic growth.

Webinar Objectives

To engage a conversation with the Sindh provincial authorities to identify opportunities and challenges for deployment of clean energy and financing solutions, particularly targeting agricultural value chains (biomass, biogas, solar, w2e)
To identify and circumscribe financing challenges for SMEs and work towards possible solutions
To bring together financing providers and solutions
To position Pakistan Private Sector Energy Project’s Unique Selling Proposition
To identify projects from Sindh capable of receiving PFAN support
To identify local financial and other institutions as possible partners for PPSE

Webinar Activities

Opening remarks from Peter Storey, Acting Chief of Party for PPSE and PFAN Global Coordinator, who elucidated the importance of the cultural context in which PFAN is working in Pakistan.
Keynote speeches were conducted by Mr. Abu Bakr Ahmed, Secretary, Minister for Energy, Government of Sindh and Mr. Michael Nehrbass USAID Acting Mission Director.
Mr. Mehboob ul Haq, Managing Director, Sindh Enterprise Development Fund presented main objectives of SEDF and its activities and services to SMEs.
To fulfil the objective of further establishing PPSE’s USP, Deputy Chief of Party, PFAN PPSE, Ghazil Jabbar, in his presentation shared that PFAN has supported nearly 1,000 projects with more than 300 projects in the current pipeline, raising USD 2 billion in total investment leveraged by PFAN-supported projects.
Kevin Braithwaite, Vice President at The Network for Global Innovation (NGIN) discussed the launch of the first PFAN SME Accelerator in Pakistan and explained the program details for relevant project developers.
A panel discussion brought together various public-private sector experts who explored investment opportunities and financing solutions against the backdrop of the regulatory framework and incentives in the province.
The panel included: Mr. Abrar Shaikh, Sindh Investment Department; Mr. Hammad Umer, Country Manager Pakistan, Insitor Partners; Mr. Syed Ali Hasan, Head of Sustainable Initiative, JS Bank; Mr. Saad Latif, Co-founder, K-Solar; Mr. Tahir Rasheed, Representative, Dutch Fund for Climate and Development; Mr. Sulaiman Rehman, VP Commercial and Sales, Reon Energy Limited.
Wrap up and Closing Remarks were given by Ms. Jenna Diallo, Director, USAID Energy Office who discussed the importance of bringing stakeholders at such events to make fruitful connections and help understand various nuances of the energy sector, so that progress be made together and not in silos.
Questions pertaining to the capacity of energy projects, policy reforms, clean energy infrastructure, tariffs and incentives to early stage entrepreneurs were most recurrent.
The event follow up also shared the Q&A transcripts, post-event survey, presentations, event details, video recording and survey answers.

Webinar Outcomes

52% of attendees were from Sindh which helped strengthen our provincial outreach and almost 36% were from the clean energy sector in particular which aided project origination outreach.
PPSE was positioned as having unique value proposition to project developers, particularly in Sindh, especially linking project partnership with SEDF.
The project gained more attention and recognition, participants followed on social media and the team live-tweeted the event.
Increase in traffic to SME Accelerator application was seen and uptick in applications.
Relationships were strengthened with key stakeholders at the panel discussion and have extended more support to PFAN and clean energy entrepreneurs. Team was asked to share panel contacts with participants.
Participants highly appreciated the event in post event survey and requested similar events in the future.
Through poll and survey records, we gathered some knowledge on the requirements and challenges of clean energy project developers in Sindh, such as: it was gathered that attendees believed solar energy has the most potential and the biggest challenge entrepreneurs face is lack of access to finance.
The panel discussion helped the team meet the objective of building fruitful relationships in the Sindhi clean energy sector with key players by engaging them, especially significant energy project developers/financial institutions such as Reon energy and JS Bank, respectively. The discussion strove to answer pertinent questions regarding the opportunities and challenges, which were shared by participants in the Q&A round.

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More information on the event and PPSE Project can be found here:

Press release: https://pk.usembassy.gov/united-states-and-pakistan-promote-private-sector-investment-in-clean-energy-in-sindh/

Learn more about PPSE: https://pfan.net/pakistan-private-sector-energy-project/