The African Development Bank (AfDB) approved a $68-million in financing for the Inga Site Development and Electricity Access Support Project (PASEL) which will help the development of the Grand Inga. The hydropower project will produce 40 GW upon completion with the consortium led by Voith and including Spanish Elecnor SA announcing in June that it would finance $58 million.
The AfDB’s support, which comes in the form of a Fragile States Facility grant of $7.7 million and an African Development Fund grant of $60.6 million, accounts for 43% of the total project cost ($169 million). With this approval, the support of the AfDB to the Inga project, since the inception of the mandate to lead the implementation of the NEPAD Infrastructure Action Plan, will amount to $90 million.
PASEL will finalize the preparation of the Inga 3 project, which will consist of developing a power-generating capacity of 4,800 MW on the Inga site and building power transmission lines that will supply electricity to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and to the Republic of South Africa. “This is the right project for the DRC and the Bank – at the right time,” said Alex Rugamba, Director of the AfDB’s Energy, Environment and Climate Change Department. “It is timely because it facilitates the implementation of Inga 3 whose investment costs would otherwise be difficult to mobilize in the current context of the DRC.”
The Inga 3 project will increase access to more reliable and cheaper energy in the DRC, contributing to an increase from the current 9% to over 40% by 2020. It is also expected to improve the business climate and productivity of the economies of beneficiary countries.
Make sure you visit and click ‘Like’ on our Facebook page to receive even more news and updates from Alternative Energy Africa.