Guinea is eyeing big investors to revitalize its power sector, selecting the World Bank’s financial lending arm the International Finance Corp. (IFC) to facilitate a PPP for the national utility.
Key challenges in the sector include upping the country’s electrification rate. Current only 17% of the urban population has access to electricity and only 3% in rural areas. The poor performance of the distribution network derives from a variety of problems including lack of infrastructure, maintenance, theft and losses, and poor billing and collection rates.
The mandate will be implemented in parallel with the World Bank’s power sector recovery project, providing a huge boost to Guinea’s efforts to improve Electricité de Guinée’s (EDG) performance and attract significant new investment in the country’s power sector.
"We have signed important agreements including an advisory services contract with IFC, which is ready to help us develop PPPs, including the national electricity utility EDG," said KerfallaYansané, Minister of State for Economy and Finance of the Republic of Guinea.
There are projects in the works as Guinea signed an agreement in August with Israeli firm SDE Energy for the development of a 100-MW wave power plant. Aggreko has also been brought on to supply a 50-MW temporary power package.
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