Page 8 - AfrElec Week 17 2021

AfrElec INVESTMENT AfrElec

EIB approves €340mn of renewables

and water funding for Africa

AFRICA THE European Investment Bank (EIB) has on the Konkoure river by China International
approved €340mn of funding for water and Water & Electric Corp. (CWE).
renewable energy in Africa. According to the African Development Bank
The loans are for the construction of sustaina- (AfDB), which is co-financing the electricity
ble infrastructure in Mali, Chad, Guinea, Malawi interconnection between Guinea and Mali, the
and Comoros. aim of the project is to increase the availability of
The EIB funding was announced in the mar- electricity in both countries and strengthen the
gins of an EU-Africa forum co-organised by establishment of the regional electricity mar-
the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the ket in West Africa, in line with the Master Plan
European Union and the EIB. adopted in 2012 by ECOWAS heads of state.
The bulk of the funding, €300mn, is for the The EIB is also providing funding for off-grid
electricity interconnection between Guinea and solar electrification in Chad and Comoros. The
Mali. funding is for the off-grid provider InnoVent,
This project is part of the West African Power which is expanding its services in Africa, par-
Pool (WAPP) of the Economic Community of ticularly south of the Sahara. This solution is par-
West African States (ECOWAS). ticularly deployed in Chad to accelerate access to
Under the EIB-financed project, WAPP will electricity in rural or semi-urban areas.
construct a 225-kV double-circuit AC power Part of the EIB’s funding is dedicated to the
line, approximately 714 km long, from Sananko- provision of drinking water in Malawi. Accord-
roba in Mali to Nzérékoré in Guinea (via Fomi ing to the United States Agency for International
in Guinea). Development (USAID), 4mn people in this East
The project also includes the installation of African country do not have access to drinking
transformer stations at Siguiri, Fomi, Kankan, water.
Kérouane, Beyla and N’Zérékoré (in Guinea) Currently, the efforts of Malawian author-
and Sanankoroba. ities and development finance institutions are
The electricity transmitted to Mali’s national also directed towards hygiene and sanitation. In
grid is generated from the Souapiti hydroelectric Malawi, only 6% of the population has access to a
plant (HPP), recently commissioned in Guinea. sanitation facility. This leads to open defecation,
The 550-MW facility operates from a dam built which is a vector for diseases such as cholera.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 17 29•April•2021