Grace Ashiru
Cold Solutions Rwanda has secured a senior debt facility of up to $18 million from the Africa Go Green Fund to develop a new temperature-controlled storage facility in Kigali.
The financing, managed by Cygnum Capital, will support construction and working capital for the project, which will be located in the Kigali Prime Economic Zone. The planned facility is expected to begin operations with capacity for 4,000 pallets, with the option to double that figure to 8,000 as demand grows.
Cold Solutions Rwanda already operates a temperature-controlled packhouse in Kigali and provides cold-chain logistics services. The new development will expand that footprint by bringing storage, produce handling, packhouse activities and refrigerated distribution together at one site.
The project comes as Rwanda continues to expand its agriculture and food-processing industries. Growth in those sectors has increased the need for reliable cold-storage and refrigerated transport infrastructure, particularly for perishable products that can lose value when they are not stored at appropriate temperatures.
The facility is also expected to serve pharmaceutical companies and other businesses that require strict temperature management. A planned 440-kilowatt rooftop solar system will form part of the development, while backup power and thermal-control systems are intended to protect stored products during interruptions to grid electricity.
Cold Solutions Rwanda operates as the Rwandan platform of the ARCH Cold Chain Solutions East Africa Fund, which is advised by ARCH Emerging Markets Partners.
The Africa Go Green Fund provides debt financing for businesses and infrastructure projects that can contribute to lower greenhouse-gas emissions across the continent.
For Cold Solutions Rwanda, the financing provides capital to scale infrastructure intended to reduce product losses and improve the movement of temperature-sensitive goods. The expansion could also strengthen Rwanda’s agricultural export chain by giving producers and processors greater access to storage and handling systems designed to preserve product quality for longer.
