The African Development Bank (AfDB) had become the largest financier of clean energy in Africa, acting director of the climate change department Kurt Lonsway reported earlier this month.

The AfDB provided a cumulative $4.3- billion of the total $14.7-billion invested by development banks in clean energy projects in Africa since 2007, followed by the World Bank Group with $2.9-billion.

“In a few short years, the AfDB has become a major player in the global effort to develop clean energy. The need is particularly real in this region,” said Lonsway.

The Bloomberg New Energy Finance Clean Energy White Paper, released in September, showed that the AfDB’s investments had recorded steady growth since 2007, with investments of $371-billion in clean energy in Africa. By 2011, investments had accelerated 92% from $769-million in 2011, to $1.5-billion during 2012.

However, the report, which examined the clean energy transactions by 26 national and multilateral development banks from 2007 to 2012, showed that Africa only received a fraction of the collective $425-billion injected into clean energy projects globally over the past five years.

Europe received the largest investments at $217-billion, followed by Asia at $122- billion and Central and South America at $66.2-billion.

Investments into clean energy projects globally jumped 19.4% in 2012, with many development banks indicating the intention to scale back or eliminate investments into coal-fired energy generation projects.

Germany’s KfW Entwicklungsbank maintained its position as the world’s biggest clean energy investment player since 2007, with a cumulative $147-billion invested globally, almost double that of the $78-billion allocated by the China Development Bank.

The European Investment Bank ranked third with cumulative clean energy investments of $55-billion, followed by the Brazilian Development Bank and the World Bank Group with investments of $47-billion and $26-billion respectively.

AfDB and the Development Bank of Southern Africa ranked at number 11 and 20 respectively.

“In general, clean energy has enjoyed a big boost from development banks in recent years,” he said, noting the three-fold increase in investments from $36.8-billion in 2007, to $108.9-billion in 2012, breaking the $100-billion mark for the first time.