Côte d’Ivoire will boost its electricity production through a 44-megawatt hydroelectric power project supported with a €50 million African Development Bank financing loan, approved on in Abidjan.
Located at about 148 km north of Abidjan, the Singrobo-Ahouaty Hydropower Plant Project, to be commissioned in 2021, will support the thermal production of electricity during periods of high demand as well as diversify the country’s energy mix.
Côte d’Ivoire intends to increase its share of renewable energy from 15% to 42% by 2021.
The loan, granted under the private sector window of the African Development Bank, also aims to promote and support Ivorian private entrepreneurship, through financial support and expertise provided to the local promoter of the hydroelectric power station.
For the African Development Bank, the project will create jobs and ancillary infrastructure, including the asphalting of a 4-km road axis close to the plant.
In the long term, the road project will facilitate the movement of people in neighboring villages, and reduce travel time from one and half hours to just 10 minutes. Another expected value add is the easy evacuation and marketing of agricultural products to local market.
The project will also connect communities in the vicinity to the power grid, reduce fossil fuel dependency, and environmental pollution.
The African Development Bank’s share of renewable energy projects in the electricity financing portfolio has increased from 14% between 2007 and 2011, to 70% between 2012 and 2017.
Source: Afdb
