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The African Development Bank (AfDB) on 26 April approved a €115m ($152m) financial package for the 300MW Lake Turkana wind power project. The AfDB is mandated lead arranger for the project and expects to raise more than €127m senior debt and a further €58m subordinated debt once the project is officially launched in May.

Erin Energy, the former Camac Energy, has filed a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in Houston to enable it to pursue a reorganisation plan. Erin Energy and its subsidiaries will continue to operate under the jurisdiction of the Bankruptcy Court, the company said.Erin aims to restructure its debts to achieve financial stability and reposition itself to develop its asset portfolio. Okin Adams LLP is acting as bankruptcy counsel to Erin Energy.

With private equity (PE) and other funds lining up to buy into the African electricity supply industry, ownership of UK developer Globeleq Africa is passing to Norfund and UK development finance institution (DFI) CDC. The deal includes a cash payment of about $225m to current owner UK PE investor Actis Infrastructure 2 Fund. By giving CDC a 70% stake and Norfund 30%, the DFIs will take direct control of Globeleq, pending government and other third party consents.

The board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has nominated former Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt to replace Clare Short as head of the Oslo-based organisation. Short, a former UK development secretary, was elected as EITI chair in March 2011 and her term comes to an end at the EITI Global Conference in Lima in February. The EITI is a coalition of stakeholders from government, civil society, oil, gas and mining companies and investors, working together to promote open and accountable management of natural resources.

President Uhuru Kenyatta on 12 March signed into law the long-awaited Petroleum Bill 2017, which will regulate oil exploration and production and set out revenue-sharing provisions, and the Energy Bill 2017, which establishes three national entities to manage Kenya’s energy resources.The petroleum law will provide a framework for contracting, exploring, developing and producing hydrocarbons. It will be used to create a national policy for operations and as a reference point in the establishment of petroleum institutions.

The South Sudan petroleum ministry is continuing its efforts to pre-finance crude deals to support the continued functioning of the government and its war effort. “We have pre-financing deals with Trafigura and BB Energy,” petroleum minister Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth told African Energy in an interview. Dutch trader Trafigura has signed several pre-financing deals with Juba since independence, usually for several months at a time. Lebanon-based BB Energy is a relatively new entrant to the South Sudan market, but has been taking an increasing share of cargoes in recent months.

Investors’ belief that Africa will continue to show above-average growth, as global returns on private equity continue to fall, is shown by a wave of new fund vehicles. The Pan-African Investment Partners II (PAIP II) fund has closed a first stage requirement of

The Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (Pida) plans to float a diaspora bond in Zimbabwe and Zambia to raise part of the funding required for the construction of the 2,400MW Batoka Gorge hydroelectric power plant in the Zambezi River Basin. The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) will visit Ethiopia in March to study and replicate how the country has used the bonds to fund the construction of its 6,000MW Grand Renaissance Dam. ZRA is a statutory company jointly owned by Zimbabwe and Zambia.

In this still young century, China has emerged as by far Africa’s biggest economic partner, establishing a vast footprint across the continent at breakneck speed. As many ties with the west have declined – especially following the 2008-09 global financial crisis – Chinese engagement shows no sign of diminishing. This will be underlined when heads of state gather in Beijing for the next Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit in September.

Sonatrach and Turkey’s Ronesans Holding have announced they are to invest $1.2bn-$1.3bn to build a polypropylene plant in Ceyhan industrial zone in southern Turkey. Ronesans chairman Erman Ilicak said the plant would produce 450,000 t/yr of polypropylene, with propane gas to be supplied by Sonatrach under a 15-year contract.The contract points to a shift in strategy by Sonatrach, which earlier this year announced a refinery project in Italy, which will take Algerian feedstock.

The West African Development Bank (Boad) and Senelec have signed a CFA25bn ($40m) loan agreement for the partial funding of electric power distribution grid strengthening and redevelopment in the Dakar, Thiès, Kaolack, Fatick, Saint-Louis and Tambacounda areas. The loan represents 82.3% of the total project cost and will improve power supply through power distribution grid automation, removal of radial lines and power grid strengthening.

UK-based BBOXX has secured a $4m local currency loan from government-owned Union Togolaise de Banque (UTB) to fund the first phase of the company’s activities in Togo. The Togolese government aims to increase access to electricity from 36% in 2016 to 60% in 2022 under its Accelerated Growth and Employment Strategy. In rural areas, a government study identified 300,000 households that cannot economically be connected to the grid but which are suitable for solar home systems.

Rwanda’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning on 18 May announced that it had signed a bilateral agreement with the German government for German development bank KfW to provide a €15m grant for the 147MW Ruzizi III hydropower project. The $650m project is being developed by the Agha Khan’s Industrial Promotion Services and US developer Sithe Global, under a contract awarded in 2014, and will supply Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda with 49MW each.

A financing package for Alufer Mining’s Bel Air bauxite project has come as a welcome boost for a sector overshadowed by the Simandou affair and the aftermath of the 2014 Ebola crisis. Alufer has raised $90m of convertible debt and $35m of equity from a consortium of Resource Capital Funds, the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), Orion Mine Finance and existing shareholders, as well as $80m of senior debt from Orion. The funds will be used to develop the Bel Air bauxite mine through to first commercial production.

Zambia’s new government plans to capitalise on its B+ credit rating by issuing a $500m ten-year sovereign bond next year. Presenting the 2012 budget to parliament, finance minister Alexander Chikwanda said the rating from Standard & Poor’s and Fitch “has opened up the opportunity for Zambia