Sub-Saharan Africa requires affordable, reliable, and sustainable
electricity to boost its economic, social, and human development. The
main challenge posed to the region's electricity sector is the large
investment gap needed to finance new power projects. The employment of
new and innovative financing options is required to bridge this
investment gap. Independent power projects have become one of the
fastest-growing sources of new finance in the region. However, their
development is constrained by the limited availability of debt finance
for project implementation. The limited capital and bureaucratic burden
of traditional financial institutions coupled with the high risks in the
region ensures that the debt finance required by independent power
projects is raised only after an arduous voyage and at high interest
rates. We address these challenges by proposing a novel decentralized
finance instrument, a blockchain special purpose vehicle that
streamlines the processes in the financial layer of a traditional
special purpose vehicle -- finance mobilization, revenue collection, and
revenue disbursal. Specifically, the proposed decentralized finance
instrument facilitates the mobilization of finance for the special
purpose vehicle from a location-independent crowd, revenue collection
from the electricity offtaker in a risk-mitigated manner, and disbursal
of eventual project revenues to investors.