The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) has approved a €35 million loan for the construction of the Biovea biomass power plant in Ivory Coast. Work began a few days ago in the Ayébo locality.
Good news for Biovea Energie. The special vehicle set up to develop and build the Biovea biomass power plant has been granted a loan of €35 million. The funding was recently approved by the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG). And it comes at just the right time, since the construction site for the biomass power plant was recently launched in Ayébo, in the presence of the Ivorian authorities.
EAIF’s financing, together with the commitments of lead arranger Proparco, a subsidiary of the French Development Agency (AFD), will enable Ivory Coast’s energy sector to move towards carbon neutrality and complete the financing of a unique project, says the investment fund managed by Anglo-South African company Ninety One. The EAIF loan is accompanied by an €8 million technical assistance grant from the PIDG.
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Proparco is supporting the project with a €135 million loan and a €5 million grant. The power station is being built 100 km east of Abidjan, the economic capital of Ivory Coast. As part of the project, agricultural waste will be collected from 12,000 farmers over a 25-year period. The Ayébo power station will have two units of 23 MW each. Together, the facilities will have a capacity of 46 MW.
Biovea Energie, which is implementing the project, is 40%-owned by Électricité de France (EDF) and 36%-owned by Meridiam, a French company specialising in the development, financing and management of infrastructure projects. Biokala, a subsidiary of the Ivorian industrial group Sifca, holds the remaining 24%. Biovea has already signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Ivorian Electricity Company (CIE). The project will require an investment of €237 million. China Energy Engineering Corporation (CEEC or Energy China) has been awarded the contract to build the plant.
Jean Marie Takouleu
