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The increasingly gas-focused Seven Energy has secured an additional $255m equity investment after selling 26% of the company to Singapore government-owned investment company Temasek and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC). Temasek has invested $150m in return for a 15.6% stake in Seven, while the IFC committed $75m. The IFC’s African, Latin American and Caribbean Fund also invested a further $30m for Seven’s irredeemable convertible, coupon-less loan notes, which the company says are akin to equity, taking the IFC’s total share to 10.4%. The new injection of funds takes Seven Energy’s market capitalisation to almost $1bn.

Developer Tempus Constant Qualitas (TCQ) Power is aiming for financial close in July on the 57MW first phase of its heavy fuel oil plant for Freetown, which will be Sierra Leone’s first independent power project. TCQ chief executive Karim Nasser told the Invest Sierra Leone 2016 forum in London on 5 May the joint venture of Abu Dhabi-based TCQ and Zambia’s CEC Africa Investment aimed to start construction in September 2016, for first power in December 2017.

African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), a subsidiary of Macquarie and Old Mutual Investment Group, and Hydroneo Afrique, a subsidiary of French hydropower developer Mecamidi, have announced plans for a 50:50 joint venture to develop around $500m of hydroelectric power plants in Africa of up to 200MW. The joint venture will develop, finance, build, own and operate small power projects with a focus on Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea and Mozambique.

President Denis Sassou-Nguesso inaugurated a 300MW power plant at the oil port of Pointe Noire on 23 December

Alstom has signed a €250m ($333m) contract with the state Metals & Engineering Corporation to supply turbines and generators for the hydropower plant of the Grand Renaissance dam on the Blue Nile. The plant will be operated by Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has announced a commitment of $27m in senior debt to support the Western Area Power Generation Project, Sierra Leone’s first independent power project. IFC also acted as the lead arranger and interest rate swap provider to mobilise a further $109m in long-term financing from other development finance institutions, including the African Development Bank, CDC Group, the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund and the Netherlands’ FMO. Abu Dhabi-based TCQ Power is developing a 57MW heavy oil fuel-fired power plant in an industrial zone about 4km outside Freetown.

Although critics in Morocco have expressed concern about ACWA Power International’s lack of renewables experience, the Saudi power and desalination specialist has been moving into solar with steely determination over the past year – and anyway brought in an experienced Spanish team as its engineering, procurement and construction contractor.

Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) and Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) have released bid documents for four contract lots covering the design, supply and installation of a 400kV overhead transmission line for the Kenya-Tanzania power interconnection project. The 508km line, with 93km in Kenya and 415km in Tanzania, will be able to transfer more than 2,000MW in either direction. The project is being funded by a $144.9m loan from the African Development Bank approved in February, alongside financing from the African Development Fund and Japan International Co-operation Agency.

The European Investment Bank has agreed several loans for North African power projects, including the Giza North power plant in Egypt, the Sousse power plant in Tunisia, and funding for the Tunisian transmission network.

Infrastructure minister Claver Gatete and Rosatom director-general Aleksey Likhachev signed an intergovernmental agreement in Moscow on 5 December on cooperation in the peaceful use of atomic energy. Rosatom said the agreement established a legal basis for interaction in a wide range of areas, including a project for the construction of a centre for nuclear science and technology and a nuclear power plant in Rwanda.

Japan’s Sojitz Corporation has signed a joint development agreement with Namibia’s United Africa Group (UAG) and Korea Midland Power Company (Komipo) to develop a 44MW wind power project near Luderitz

Uganda Electricity Generation Company (UEGCL) has announced a forthcoming tender for the construction of the Muzizi hydropower project. The 45MW diversion scheme on the Muzizi River in western Uganda will be implemented under an engineering, procurement and construction arrangement with financing from Germany’s KfW, the Agence Française de Développement and the government of Uganda.

The latest initiative to revitalise Nigeria’s power infrastructure is on hold because of one of the many government investigations now under way, as President Yar’Adua’s government and parliamentarians tackle the darker side of their former sponsor Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, writes Thalia Griffiths.

Preferred bidders have been announced for 80% stakes in seven of Nigeria’s ten National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) plants. The sale of the other three has been halted by a court case brought by local Ethiope Energy, while few details have emerged of the other local players in the bidding consortia. Bids were opened on 7 March for the sale, which should net the government a total $5.8bn. But within two weeks the sale of Alaoji, Omoku and Gbarain had been stopped by an interim injunction from the federal high court.

China International Water & Electric Corporation (CWE) has been awarded the contract to build the 188MW Isimba dam, Reuters quoted junior energy minister Simon D’Ujanga as saying. D’Ujanga, who also announced the award of the contract for the 600MW Kindaruma project to Sinohydro earlier this year, said: “We’re looking for cheap money to develop our infrastructure projects and China has that money.” The Isimba contract is reported to be financed with a $500m concessional loan from the Export-Import Bank of China.