(Ecofin Agency) - The Ivoire Hydro Energy (IHE) received €25 million financing from The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) - a public-private partnership that provides long-term debt on commercial terms to infrastructure projects in Africa - to build a 44MW hydro electric plant on the Bandama river, near a village in Singrobo, Côte d’Ivoire.

The loan provided by the Private Infrastructure Development Group and said to be repayable over 18 years follows other financings mobilized from development finance institutions including; the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Finance Corporation (AFC), and the German Investment Company (DEG).

The financial close for the €174 million project is expected at the third quarter of 2021. The infrastrusture is expected to be commissioned in March 2023, after which the long-term power purchase agreement will allow all energy produced by the plant to be sold to Compagnie Ivoirienne d’Electricité, a private energy company that focuses on electricity generation, transportation, and distribution in Côte d’Ivoire.

“The new facility being built at Singrobo is the country’s first hydroelectric development by an independent power producer. The project has seen EAIF and PIDG deliver on three core objectives; mobilizing private capital, enabling economic development and contributing to increasing Africa’s stock of renewable energy infrastructure,” said Paromita Chatterjee, Investment Director at EAIF’s managers, Ninety One.

Upon completion, Singrobo will be the first independent hydro project of its kind in West Africa ready to deliver 217GWh of affordable power yearly to local industries, businesses and communities, and also see CO2 emissions reduced by 124,000 tons every year.

According to a country report published by Hydropower Pro, the Ivorian government’s 2011-2030 Strategic Development Plan which focuses on developing sustainable energy, through renewable and other sources, aims to make renewable energy 34% of its energy mix by 2020 and to increase energy efficiency to 25% by 2030. This will strengthen the country as a pan-regional West African Power Pool with the capacity to export electricity beyond Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Togo, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.

Solange Che