Finance Investments News

PIDG Company, Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund, Lending €25 Million to Côte D’Ivoire Clean Energy Hydro-Electricity Project

PIDG.org

The new plant will be an important strategic economic asset for Côte d’Ivoire

The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), a Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) company, is lending €25 million over 18 years to Ivoire Hydro Energy (IHE) which will build a 44MW hydro electricity generation plant on the Bandama River near the village of Singrobo in Côte d’Ivoire. Financial close is expected in late Q3 2021. The  €174 million project is forecast to take some 36 months to build.

Paromita Chatterjee, an Investment Director at EAIF’s managers, Ninety One, says;

“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; mobilising private capital, enabling economic development and contributing to increasing Africa’s stock of renewable energy  infrastructure.”

Read More: Thunes Enables Ethiopia’s Dashen Bank to Make Instant Cross-Border Transfers to Bank Accounts and Amole Mobile Wallets

A long-term power purchase agreement will see all of the energy produced by the Singrobo plant sold to Compagnie Ivoirienne d’Electricité, the operator of Côte d’Ivoire’s national grid. The new plant will be an important strategic economic asset for Côte d’Ivoire. In addition to adding to the country’s generation capacity, the plant enhances the system’s flexibility, meaning it may be called in to meet baseload demand as well as peak demand.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) acted as the mandated lead arranger of the debt finance and will be a senior lender in its own right. In addition to AfDB and EAIF, the other lenders are the German international development agency, DEG and the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC). 25% of the project cost is funded by equity from the project’s shareholders, IHE Holding, the Africa Finance Corporation and DIPFA, a Denham Capital owned international investment platform for power projects.  Neo Themis SARL is advising and acting for the shareholders in relation to finalising the project’s development and the financing agreements.

Read More: US News & World Report’s 360 Reviews Names Stax as the Best Credit Card Processing Company of 2021

Electrification rates in Côte d’Ivoire range from c88% in urban areas to as low as 31% in rural parts of the country. Côte d’Ivoire’s economy has been growing and diversifying since the return of political stability in 2011. It has the largest and most diversified economy in the West African Economic and Monetary Union, representing c30% of the monetary union’s total GDP.

Read More: OnPoint Community Credit Union Introduces New 2% Cash Back Credit Card

Related posts

Tavant FinDecision Enhances Broker Experience Through Collaboration with PennyMac Financial Services, Inc.

Fintech News Desk

KeyBank Expands its Relationship Banking Capabilities with nCino

Fintech News Desk

Qontigo Embeds Axioma Factor-based Fixed Income Risk Model in Axioma Risk

Fintech News Desk
1