IFC: Credins Bank Training Pilot to Spur Renewable Energy Market in Albania

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and Albania’s Credins Bank are launching a new capacity-building program for bankers to help local financial institutions develop renewable energy market and increase investment in the sector.
IFC is advising Credins Bank, one of Albania’s top five commercial banks, to enhance internal expertise on identifying opportunities for financing renewable energy projects, with a particular focus on small hydro power plants. Albania is known for its large hydropower potential but has exploited only about 35% of its total known capacity. Electricity demand is much higher than supply, making Albania one of the region’s largest electricity importers.
IFC experts will deliver a three-day training program specifically tailored for Credins’ needs. It will enhance bankers’ skills when evaluating proposals on renewable energy financing, as well as improving their knowledge on legal issues, product development and engineering due diligence for energy efficiency projects.
The program is the first in a series of similar individually tailored training workshops to be rolled out for select local financial institutions across the Western Balkans to help bankers improve their knowledge of project finance and renewable energy. In each country the training would be customized to local conditions.
“A key focus for us is to help improve internal capacity of our clients. We want equip credit officers with a very practical know-how from engineers and lawyers to help them better understand country’s specific legal, technical and financial opportunities,” said Nebojsa Arsenijevic, IFC Program Manager for the Balkans Renewable Energy Program.
IFC aims to foster the development of the renewable energy market in Albania and remove market barriers by working with government officials to improve regulatory framework, cooperating with renewable energy companies to enhance their project design and working with banks to increase lending for the projects.
IFC is implementing its Renewable Energy Advisory Program in the Balkans in partnership with the Austrian Finance Ministry.

energjia.al, 21.02.2013