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Eren Renewable Energy and its partner African Energy Management Platform on 6 March announced the signing of a 15-year power purchase agreement with Iamgold Essakane gold mine to complement its existing diesel power plant with a 15MWp solar farm. The mine is 330km from Ouagadougou in northern Burkina and is not connected to the grid. It is the largest privately held business in the country and produced 400,000 ounces of gold in 2015. The 15MWp solar project, expected to be commissioned by year-end at a cost of $20m, will help decrease the mine’s fuel consumption by approximately 6m litres/yr.

The Islamic Development Bank has signed loan agreements totalling $51.7m to finance the last phase of Morocco’s rural electrification programme (Perg)

The UK-Africa Investment Summit, which brought an impressive number of heads of state and government to London on 20-21 January, was a ceremony to mark UK ambitions to create a ‘Global Britain’ following Brexit and still be seen as a major player in Africa. It was cast in the mould of similar events hosted by France, the United States (during Barack Obama’s presidency), Japan, Germany and Russia, as well as the triennial Sino-African summits that underline China’s African business dominance.

There are signs of movement, at last, on bidding for flagship solar and other renewables projects, to be installed at either end of the continent. 

The confirmation by Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s 30 July election victory was above board brushed aside opposition MDC Alliance complaints, along with growing international scepticism about the hotly disputed poll. Violent scenes in Harare following the results’ announcement raised concerns that the new administration may yet have more in common with the dark years of Robert Mugabe’s rule than with Mnangagwa’s loudly proclaimed “open for business” policy. Mnangagwa was sworn in on 26 August but has yet to appoint his cabinet or a vice-president.

The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation is inviting bids for the design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of two transmission line packages. The first involves construction of a 132kV single circuit line connecting the 460MW Beles hydroelectric power plant to Beles Sugar Factory and supply of ancillary equipment for a 230kV transmission line. The second is to build a 230kV line from Welayita Sodo II to Omo Kuraz Sugar Factory and a 132kV transmission line from Sugar Factory 1 to Sugar Factory 5. Bid documents will be available from 17 June, with bids due by 20 August.

The 22 January announcement that Globeleq and its partner IPS had reached financial close for the 253MW expansion of their 460MW Azito gas-fired plant at Yopougon, near Abidjan, was timed to coincide with a visit to London by an Ivorian delegation led by President Alassane Dramane Ouattara for the UK-Africa Summit. General Electric will provide gas turbine technology and services for the Phase IV project. The new and enlarged 20-year Azito concession agreement underscores Côte d’Ivoire’s ability to finance major private sector infrastructure projects.

National Petroleum Authority (NPA) chief executive Alexander Mould has been named as the new head of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), the energy ministry said. Mould replaces Nana Boakye Asafu-Adjaye, who had been GNPC chief executive since 2009. Before his appointment to the NPA, Mould had been executive director and co-head of wholesale banking at Standard Chartered Bank in Ghana

ArcelorMittal South Africa is looking for an independent power producer to build an 800MW gas-fired power station at its Saldanha steel works to help ensure the scheme’s survival, chief executive Paul O’Flaherty told Reuters on 12 February. ArcelorMittal, which is reviewing its Saldanha operation partly due to high electricity costs, is willing to take as much as 220MW of the plant’s capacity and is in talks with other industrial users and the government to sign long-term contracts for the rest. Building an independent power plant is vital for the survival of Saldanha, O’Flaherty told Reuters, adding that Eskom’s rising electricity prices were unaffordable.

UK-based private equity investor Actis has bought AES Corporation’s Cameroon power assets for $220m. The investment gives Actis a 56% stake in Société Nationale d’Electricité (Sonel), and in the 216MW Kribi combined cycle gas turbine power plant and the 85MW Dibamba heavy fuel oil plant. While Actis will manage Sonel directly, Globeleq, its private power company, will operate Kribi and Dibamba. The investment is part of Actis’ Energy 3 Fund, which launched in April this year and has raised $750m to target power assets in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Sasol Petroleum International is expanding gas production from Mozambique, where the central processing facility produces 300mcf/d from the Pande and Temane fields, and a $500m expansion is under way

Personalities remain a key factor in shaping a continent trying to emerge from lost decades of ‘big man’ politics. While the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) made much of efforts to create a post-conflict ‘developmental state’ in the last two decades, modern Ethiopia was fashioned in the image of the late Meles Zenawi, who harnessed an intolerant, Tigrayan-dominated political system to a rigid but fast-growing (if unbalanced) economy.

Niger Delta Exploration & Production (NDEP) plans to raise $450m through a share offer, CEO Layi Fatona told the company’s annual general meeting in Lagos on 19 September. The first tranche of $200m is expected to be raised by year-end from either local or international markets and will fund the acquisition and development of oil fields in Nigeria. There is no date set on when the remaining $250m will be sought, but it could be used to fund the company’s possible entrance into South Sudan and Zambia, he said. FBN Capital and Chapel Hill Denham have been appointed as financial advisors.

The African Development Bank board has approved a $144.9m loan for the Kenya-Tanzania Power Interconnection Project. The project involves the construction of a 508km, 400kV overhead double-circuit transmission line from Isinya substation in Kenya to Singida substation in Tanzania, as well as 400kV substations at Iringa, Dodoma, Singida, Shinyanga and Arusha in Tanzania. The line will transmit up to 2,000MW. A tender for the supervision and management of the project was issued last month.

Uganda Electricity Generation Company has awarded ILF Consulting Engineers a contract to provide design and consultancy services for the 44MW Muzizi hydroelectric power plant. The Munich and Innsbruck-based consultancy will review the feasibility study and optimise the design before drawing up tender documents and assisting with procurement. The company will later act as implementation engineer and supervise construction. Muzizi will be a run-of-river plant on the Muzizi River in western Uganda with a 450-metre head and 12m3/sec discharge. It is being financed by the Agence Française de Développement and German development agency KfW.