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UK-listed independent Savannah Energy has secured the expected ten-year extension to its four production sharing contracts (PSCs) in Niger.

Scaling Solar’s Gorou Banda development is one of four planned generation projects expected to be commissioned within the next five years that will add 250MW of capacity, alongside 200MWh of planned storage capacity.

Miner Goviex Uranium chief executive Daniel Major told African Energy that work on the 20MW Madaouela Mine solar PV and diesel hybrid plant near Arlit, in the Agadez region, had been postponed.

Power generation has received a significant boost in the world’s poorest country after a long period of stagnation, with significant PV and HFO on-grid additions and prequalification for a 50MW Scaling Solar project.

London AIM-listed Savannah Energy said it expects to secure cabinet approval and pay the associated fee for the amalgamation of its four licence areas in the Agadem Rift Basin in south-eastern Niger by end-July.

One of the world’s poorest countries – with a 44% poverty rate and $420 per capita income – hosts over 240,000 refugees and more than 300,000 IDPs, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says.

The National Assembly (parliament) on 20 April approved a bill authorising $150m of funding from the World Bank Group (WBG)’s International Development Association (IDA) for the 130MW Kandadji hydropower plant. The WBG last June approved by the package of a $100m soft loan (with six years grace) and $50m grant to help fund the first phase of resettlement and livelihood support.

A cabinet meeting on 12 February approved a production sharing contract signed with Niger Oil Company (NOC) for blocks R5, R6 and R7. A cabinet statement said NOC was owned by Azimuth, Amko, state oil company Société Nigérienne de Pétrole and local private investors.

The G5 Sahel countries have received new support for solar generation in the Desert to Power scheme promoted by the African Development Bank (AfDB). The AfDB’s stated ambition is for the G5 Sahel countries – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Mali and Niger – to harness their potential to create “the world’s largest solar zone”. The AfDB aims to increase on- and off-grid solar generation capacity by 10GW, to transform the livelihoods of some 250m people across the 11-state Sahel region.

The government is set to pass a decree revising the boundaries of a 97,000km2 nature reserve in eastern Niger to address the concerns of environmentalists, oil companies and donors. French NGO Noé, which manages the Termit and Tin-Toumma National Nature Reserve (RNNTT) hopes the decree will be adopted before the first round of the presidential election on 27 December.

Société Nigérienne d’Electricité (Nigelec) has contracted a consortium of India’s Sterling andWilson,France’sVergnet and SNS Niger to construct a solar PV battery storage and diesel genset-based hybrid power plant in the central city of Agadez.

Contracts have been awarded for the hybridisation of 13 diesel plants in Niger using solar PV. The projects are part of the Niger Solar Electricity Access Project, which is backed by the World Bank Group’s International Development Association.

The World Bank board on 24 June approved $150m from the International Development Association for the Kandadji dam project. The funds are the third funding package agreed by the bank for the project. The package includes a €92m ($100m) loan and a grant of SDR36.6m ($50m) to help fund the first phase of resettlement and livelihood support, which is expected to cost $434.2m in total. The funding will build housing for resettled communities and provide drinking water and sanitation to the resettlement sites. It will also provide transition support to resettled populations, with a focus on vulnerable people.

The World Bank Group (WBG) has begun procuring services for the first phase of its Scaling Solar programme in Niger, while the Ministry of Energy is seeking consultants to design green mini-grids. Scaling Solar aims to create the conditions for solar power development in countries with little or no experience of the technology. Niger is not formally engaged with the programme, but the WBG has initiated the first due diligence and transaction structuring phase.

A cabinet meeting on 10 January approved a draft decree granting an Internal Transport Authorisation for the proposed 1,900km Niger-Benin oil export pipeline and declaring the project to be of public utility. On 20 September 2018, the government of Niger and China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Company (CNODC) signed a framework agreement relating to the construction and operation of the pipeline.