ARM-Harith Secures $76m Africa’s First Multi-Currency Climate Fund

ARM-Harith Infrastructure Investments has hit a $76 million first close for its climate transition fund, Africa’s first integrated multi-currency investment vehicle that blends US dollars and local currency in one structure.

Targeting $200 million at final close, the fund is designed to unlock African institutional capital and channel it into climate-resilient energy and infrastructure projects across sub-Saharan Africa. The structure directly tackles currency mismatch, a key barrier to infrastructure investment by aligning fund currency with local asset revenues while still giving hard-currency investors dollar exposure.

The Fund is the first integrated multi-currency blended finance platform purpose-built for African institutional investors, denominated in both US dollars and local currency within a single structure for investment into infrastructure equity.

The first close is anchored by a combined $20 million of catalytic capital from FSD Africa Investments (FSDAi) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) through its Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA). This capital is designed to de-risk participation by domestic pension funds and other institutional investors across the continent, supporting the broader ambition of scaling local capital mobilisation for African infrastructure.

The Fund will be deployed into essential infrastructure projects that deliver real-economy impact and resilient cashflows across climate-resilient assets in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Speaking, the chief executive officer of ARM-Harith, Rachel More-Oshodi said, “this first close is both an achievement and an inflection point for ARM-Harith. With our first fund, we demonstrated that domestic institutional capital can be mobilized into infrastructure equity.

“With this successor fund, we are building on that foundation by bringing local and hard-currency capital together within a single platform, better aligning the structure of the capital with the realities of African infrastructure assets.

“This is a fundamental redesign: one that recognizes local market realities, mobilizes domestic savings, attracts international capital, and allocates risk more intelligently. The institutions that are backing us understand the significance of this shift. They are not only investing in a fund; they are helping to shape a more practical, scalable way to finance the infrastructure Africa needs.”

The manager of AfDB’s Renewable Energy Funds Division, Joao Duarte Cunha, stated, “the successful first close of the ARM-Harith Successor Fund marks a major milestone for renewable energy investment in sub-Saharan Africa. SEFA’s catalytic participation demonstrates the African Development Bank’s commitment to unlocking long-term institutional capital and shows how blended finance can mobilise private investment into sustainable infrastructure.”

On bridging the gap between pension capital and infrastructure equity, the chief investment officer at FSDAi, Anne-Marie Chidzero said, “the constraint has never been capital itself, but the absence of investment products structured to meet pension funds’ liability-matching needs, particularly around tenure, risk allocation, and currency alignment.

“Our investment structure was designed to bridge that gap enabling pension funds to participate in infrastructure equity while remaining fully aligned with their investment objectives and obligations.”