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Electricité de France (EDF) has signed a JV agreement with the Cameroonian government to develop the next project on the Sanaga River. The new HEP plant will generate 450-550MW, which would make it Cameroon’s most powerful generation unit.

The Lomé-headquartered West African Development Bank (Boad) has approved a CFA15bn ($24.2m) loan for the 30MWp Niakhar solar PV plant, which includes a battery energy storage system.

French geoscience firm CGG has started a 3D reimaging programme in the offshore Tano Basin, close to the deep-water Baleine field where Italian major Eni recently started production.

Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) has been busy shedding assets elsewhere in Africa, but the Malaysian national oil company has expanded its footprint in Angola, via its Petronas Angola E&P subsidiary.

The International Monetary Fund has agreed to extend $1.3bn to Rabat under its resilience and sustainability facility, to support renewables and energy efficiency schemes, and to strengthen Morocco’s resilience against natural disasters. It comes just ahead of the IMF and World Bank Group annual meetings, which are going ahead as scheduled in Marrakech on 9-15 October.

The Central Electricity Board (CEB) has issued a request for tenders to design, supply, install and commission ten substations. The state utility also wants a feasibility study for a floating solar unit.

Uganda has got itself into hot water with donors and investors on several fronts, but President Yoweri Museveni’s new Anti-Homosexual Law and his robust response to the campaign against the controversial Eacop pipeline play very differently to a domestic audience. As Museveni has taken umbrage at ‘being lectured to’, finding a way out of the donor row will be a tough challenge for all concerned, writes Thalia Griffiths.

Dubai-headquartered Amea Power has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with state utility Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (UETCL) for a solar PV project.

Austria’s Andritz Hydro has announced that the Laúca hydroelectric power (HEP) plant is now operating at full capacity. Considered Angola’s largest HEP plant,  Laúca’s main powerhouse has six units, each designed to produce about 335MW.

Houston-based Noble Corporation’s Noble Voyager drillship  has spudded the Panna Cotta-1 exploration well in Mauritania’s Block C10 for a group led by UK-registered supermajor Shell.

Independent power producer (IPP) Kaboni Energy has commissioned its first Burundian mini-grid pilot system in the rural Giharo, Rutana province. The development is noteworthy for its funding model, which Kaboni calls a community energy co-operative (CEC).

Bill Kilgore Investments and a consortium of international investors led by Inspired Evolution’s managed Evolution II and III Funds, Paris-based Stoa and Dutch development bank FMO have injected $160m into Cape Town-based independent power producer (IPP) Red Rocket.

Discussing progress and slippages in its major development offshore Mauritania and Senegal, BP says its Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project is focused on a ‘sustainable’ production start, rather than racing to dispatch its first LNG cargo. The British supermajor is also focused on completing phase one of the $4.8bn cross-border development prior to advancing with Phase II work, which it said would provide confidence to Dakar, Nouakchott and investors alike

Norwegian independent power producer Scatec has commissioned a solar PV and battery hybrid project in South Africa, plus two similar schemes in Cameroon via its subsidiary Release.

The Malawi Off-Grid Market Development Fund (OGMDF) – also known as the Ngwee Ngwee Ngwee Fund – has awarded five financing agreements to local privately-held, off-grid solar companies Yellow, Vitalite Group, Zuwa Energy, Green Impact Technologies and StarTimes.