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Licence awards to unknown companies have caused a storm in Sierra Leone, with government officials blaming a ‘transparent’ process imposed on them by external consultants for the controversy. Thalia Griffiths and Eleanor Gillespie investigate the exploration boom in an emerging Transform Margin play.

A total of 53 individuals and companies have now been charged over corruption at Kenya Power in a case that has become increasingly politicised. Among those charged are 11 current and former managers, including former managing director and chief executive Ben Chumo and current acting managing director and chief executive Ken Tarus. Tarus has been replaced by Jared Omondi Othieno, who had been acting general manager for street lighting. Another five managers have been suspended.

Fiscal reforms lie at the centre of amendments to Algeria’s hydrocarbons law, which prime minister Abdelmalek Sellal’s new government approved in late September, but which still must be published and passed by parliament

Kampala-based off-grid solar company SolarNow has closed a $9m receivables financing facility arranged by specialist debt arranger SunFunder. The facility used SunFunder’s structured asset finance instrument, with money raised from co-lenders responsAbility and Oikocredit.

Italian state utility Enel Green Power on 6 February announced the start of commercial operations at the 82.5MW Adams – sometimes called Aurora – and Pulida solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants in Northern Cape and Free State provinces. The two solar plants were selected in the third round of the renewable energy independent power producer programme in 2014 and have a 20-year power supply agreement with Eskom.

EDP: Still mooting Angolan generation investments; MASDAR/MDC: Seychelles wind project

Wärtsilä has signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract to build a 48MW gas power plant supplying Bua Group’s Sokoto cement plant in northern Nigeria. The plant will run primarily on liquefied natural gas (LNG) with low pour fuel oil as a back-up. Wärtsilä has been targeting the thermal market in Africa with its integrated gas power and LNG regasification technology in recent years.The power plant will supply a new cement line at the Sokoto facility using five Wärtsilä 34DF dual-fuel engines, complementing two heavy fuel oil (HFO) plants already operating at the site, which is entirely off-grid.

The World Bank board has agreed a Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for 2008-11, deciding that despite the continued conflict in eastern Congo it is time to move from a post-conflict emergency phase (Transitional Support Strategy) to a strategic, long-term approach.

Kosmos Energy has appointed Andrew Inglis as board chairman and chief executive with effect from 1 March, enabling current chief executive Brian Maxted to focus on his exploration role. Maxted, a founding partner of Kosmos, will serve as chief exploration officer and remain on the board, while current board chairman John Kemp will retire. Inglis joined Petrofac in January 2011 after 30 years with BP, most recently as chief executive of its exploration and production business.

Tullow Oil has indicated it could bring in more partners to develop the planned pipeline and refinery components of its Ugandan oil project.

Securing early-stage project development financing is a major hurdle to getting renewable projects off the ground in many African countries, and a new facility aims to address this. On 4 December, the UK Department for International Development (DfID) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change approved the Green Africa Power (GAP) fund, a new facility housed under the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) umbrella.

CITYVIEW: Share suspension; SONATRACH: Cherouati opens his account; TULLOW OIL: New deep-water licence in Suriname

Houston-based Vaalco Energy plans a well on the Kindele prospect on Block 5 in Q4. Vice-president exploration David Cameron told Global Pacific & Partners’ Africa Independents’ Forum in London on 3 June that the block was on trend with Cobalt Energy International’s pre-salt discoveries, but exploration had been in limbo for some time following the departure of the previous block partner, Norway’s Interoil, which ran out of money. Sonangol P&P was named in 2012 or 2013 as 40% working interest partner in the block, in which it held 30% alongside BP and StatoilHydro before the block was licensed to Vaalco and Interoil in 2006.

London-based private equity firm Helios Investment Partners led a $55m funding round in January for Off Grid Electric, a solar home system provider with Silicon Valley origins. The round, supported by General Electric Ventures and existing investors, is believed to be the biggest equity investment to date in the off-grid power sector. “As the largest private equity firm exclusively focused on Africa, energy access is a priority theme for Helios,” Helios co-founder and managing partner Tope Lawani said.

Having weathered many storms as head of Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable (ONEE), Ali Fassi-Fihri was sacked as head of the state utility on 24 October. He was dismissed along with four prominent ministers and another parastatal boss by King Mohammed VI in response to a report by the Cour des Comptes (public accounts court) on the failures of a multi-faceted project to revive the economy of the northern Al-Hoceima region.