Côte d’Ivoire gets €150 million AfDB loans to extend electricity grid

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has allocated Côte d’Ivoire two loans totaling €150 million to strengthen its electricity network.

The first loan worth €100 million is for the construction of Atinkou’s combined cycle thermal power plant. The electricity generating unit with a capacity of 390 MW will be located in the locality of Taboth and will operate on gas. Its implementation will take place in two phases that will allow the installation of 255 MW, then 135 MW.

The second €50 million loan will allow the west African nation to extend the Azito thermal power plant. This project involves the addition of 253 MW from a 181 MW gas turbine and a 72 MW steam turbine.

The Phase IV expansion, combined with the technical MXL2 upgrade (being undertaken during 2019 adding 30 MW to the plant’s capacity), will see Azito supplying around 700MW, or approximately 30% of Côte d’Ivoire’s installed capacity.

Côte d’Ivoire’s minister of petroleum, energy and renewable energy, Abdourahmane Cisse, said the funding form AfDB is an important step in the development of electricity generation.

According to Wale Shonibare, the interim vice president of the Bank, these two projects are complementary to the bank’s efforts to improve energy production, trade and transportation in the sub region through the Côte d’Ivoire-Liberia-Sierra Leone-Guinea electricity interconnection project.