Grants before debt: how develoPPP co-funding actually works

develoPPP is a programme of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, run through DEG and GIZ. It co-funds business projects that combine a commercial interest with a development benefit in countries like Ghana.

The Classic track carries up to EUR 2 million in public funding, capped at half of the total project cost. Decisions run through regular idea competitions, and the company carries at least the other half itself.

Applicants must be companies headquartered in the EU, EFTA or a country on the OECD DAC list, with a long-term business interest in the market. Ghana is on that list, so a Ghanaian company can apply in its own name.

In practice the strongest applications are often carried by the European counterpart anyway: the importer, offtaker or joint-venture partner brings the scale and track record the idea competitions weigh, and the project is built around the corridor between them. Which route fits a given project is one of the first questions a funding map settles.

develoPPP Ventures adds an early-stage route: a public investment of EUR 100,000 on a matching-funds model, aimed at young companies with an innovative business model in developing and emerging markets. The company raises the same amount itself, and the public money doubles it.

Every euro of co-funding reduces the debt a project needs to raise afterwards, and a completed develoPPP project is evidence the next lender reads. That is why our financing work starts by mapping programmes on both sides of the corridor before any loan file is opened.

For a venture in Ghana the practical first step is not an application form. It is the question of who should carry one: the venture itself, or the European partner who shares enough of the project to apply.