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Société Nationale d’Electricité (Snel) has awarded a contract to Fichtner to oversee the rehabilitation of the Inga hydropower complex on the Congo river as well as the development of related transmission and distribution. The German engineering company bid E3.38m ($5.4m) for Phase 1 studies over 18 months and E7.72m for Phase 2 supervision of work over 52 months.

DR CONGO: AfDB finance for Inga; LIBERIA: Official debt relief

President Joseph Kabila has ratified SOCO International’s production-sharing contract for the onshore Nganzi block and EnerGulf Resources’ PSC for the onshore Lotshi Block, both in western Congo, as well as a PSC agreed in November 2005 with London-based Nessergy Ltd. Nessergy’s block is in the deep offshore on the DRC’s maritime corridor.

Dominion Petroleum and SOCO International have agreed a production-sharing contract for Block 5 in the southern Albertine Graben adjacent to the border with Uganda (AE 133/15).

CONGO-B: Transformers contract; DR CONGO: Ruzizi 1 rehab tender; ETHIOPIA: Sterlite wins EEPCo contract; TUNISIA: Rural solar project; UGANDA: ERA approves Tororo plant

The European Investment Bank is appraising a $75m loan for the second phase of MagIndustries’ Kouilou project, involving the development of a potash solution mining field and the construction of a potash processing plant (AE 124/2).

DR CONGO: More Chinese drop in; MOROCCO: More private wind power from DLM; MOZAMBIQUE: Brazilians to build Mphanda Nkuwa; NAMIBIA: Uranium miner plans 12MW heat from acid plant

Afrinvest name change; Maputo port investment; First Quantum financing; PA bond issue

There was another chilly dose of reality from the tropics for the growing number of donors and policy-makers looking to Democratic Republic of Congo’s extravagant endowment of natural resources, including hydropower capacity, to help southern/central Africa to overcome its now chronic power shortages, when in mid-January former militia leader Eugène Serufuli was appointed chairman of Société Nationale d’Electricité (Snel)’s managing board. This controversial decision had little to do with rehabilitating gensets or getting more of Kinshasa, not to mention the rest of this sprawling country, electrified. It said much for the balance of forces in DRC, as President Joseph Kabila consolidates power, one year on from his election victory.

The 12 January confirmation of Daniel Yengo Massampu as Société Nationale d’Electricité’s chief executive keeps a professional at the operational helm of Democratic Republic of Congo’s power sector during a difficult period

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.