The African Development Bank (ADB) will help Zola EDF Côte d'Ivoire (ZECI), to mobilise nearly 28 million dollars for the installation of solar domestic systems in 100 000 rural households by 2020. The project is part of the "Electricity for All Programme".
The “Electricity for All Programme” (PEPT) launched in 2014 by the Ivorian authorities will apply for the first time to solar energy. One hundred thousand households in non-electrified rural areas will be equipped with solar kits, including panels and lamps, but also low-energy equipment (radio, television, etc.). Systems that will operate in prepayment and will be accessible in the form of loans. Thus, for a basic kit, the customer will pay 7 euros per month (5 000 CFA francs) to reimburse the installation, which will belong to him after 3 years.
AfDB intervention in obtaining financing
The project will be carried out by Zola EDF Côte d’Ivoire (ZECI). The joint venture, which employs nearly 1,000 Ivorians, was founded by French energy leader Electricité de France (EDF) and California-based startup Off Grid Electric, which offers solar equipment in Africa and has 120,000 customers in Tanzania and Rwanda.
To finance the project, Zola EDF Côte d’Ivoire will have to mobilise approximately 28 million dollars or 15.75 billion CFA francs. The local currency loan will be provided by Société Générale Banque de Côte d’Ivoire and Crédit Agricole, Corporate and Investment Bank.
The AfDB, for its part, will provide a partial credit guarantee to help obtain the loan, as specified in a note published on the financial institution’s official website on June 14, 2018. Citing its Vice President in charge of energy, Amadou Hott, the AfDB stresses that this financing is “in line with Ivory Coast’s 2016-2020 national development plan, the strategic plan for the energy sector and the Energy for All Programme”.
In accordance with the ambition of the President of the Republic to make Côte d’Ivoire an emerging country by 2020, the Government decided during the Council of Ministers of May 27, 2014 to promote access to electricity for all populations by establishing the PEPT. This latter aims to improve access to electricity for populations through flexible terms of acquisition of connections-subscriptions. Presently, 400,000 homes have already been connected to the electricity grid through this program whose target is set at 1 million homes by 2020, or 200 thousand homes per year.
Boris Ngounou
