LAGOS
(AFP) - AFRICA FINANCE CORPERATION
Two major
investors in African power projects announced Wednesday a joint venture that
they said would help boost electricity output across the continent.
Harith
General Partners and the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) said the tie-up would
allow improved financing and development of both renewable and non-renewable
energy projects.
More than
620 million people in Africa live without electricity, the companies said.
The
president and chief executive of the Lagos-based AFC, Andrew Alli, said the
partnership would make "an invaluable contribution to improving generation
capacity" throughout Africa.
The AFC
has interests in Cenpower, which owns the Kpone Independent Power Plant in
Tema, near Accra, which is due to come on stream in 2017 and provide some 10
percent of Ghana's energy capacity.
It also
has a stake in Cabeolica, a wind farm in Cape Verde, off the West African
coast, which provides 20 percent of the country's needs.
Harith,
through the Pan African Infrastructure Development Fund it manages, has
invested in the Azura Edo power plant in southern Nigeria, and Kenay's Lake
Turkana wind power and Rabai thermal projects.
The
Johannesburg-based financiers have also helped to finance the coal-fired Kelvin
Power Station in South Africa.
All the
projects combined provide energy to more than 30 million people in at least 10
countries, with a gross operational and under-construction capacity of 1,575
megawatts, the companies said.
Harith's
chief executive, Tshepo Mahloele, said the merger will "create an African
power entity that will have substantial capital, sector-specific experience, a
critical mass of existing assets and a pipeline of credible power
projects".
"Both power users and investors alike"
will benefit, he added..
No comments:
Post a Comment