TOGO – The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) has approved a €17.38 million (US$20.11m) loan for rural electrification project in Togo that relies mainly on solar mini-grids provided by private companies.
The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) financing was approved at its 342nd Board of Directors meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It is a loan of €17.38 million (US$20.11m) for the electrification of rural areas of Togo through small autonomous solar power plants, connected to mini-grids.
These solutions are particularly appropriate for rural areas where the extension of the national electricity grid would be uneconomical.
The Togolese government is promoting electrification via off-grid solutions through the CIZO Togo Rural Electrification Project (Pravost).
Co-funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), this project aims to provide electricity to 300,000 Togolese households. Through Pravost, the government hopes to increase the national electricity access rate to 75% by 2025 and 100% by 2030.
In addition to the IsDB loan, the Lives and Livelihoods Fund (LLF) provided €9.35 million (US$10.82m) to improve the level of human development in Togo by providing sustainable electricity supply to the rural population living in dense, sparsely populated areas far from the existing grid.
The LLF is a US$2.5 billion fund established by development partners including the IsDB, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
The fund was recently joined by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. Its manager (the IsDB) estimates that the funding granted to Togo will benefit 372 schools, 22,092 families and 102 health centers.
In June this year AMEA Power, a subsidiary of UAE-based Al Nowais Investments (ANI), announced the official commissioning of its 50MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Blitta, Togo.
It the country’s first utility-scale renewable energy project developed by an Independent Power Producer (IPP), and one of the largest solar PV IPP plants in West Africa.
Officially named Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed, after His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, the PV plant has been delivered in record time, with just 18 months between the signing of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and commencement of commercial operations.
