AfricanFinance

Construction work on the Uganda-Tanzania oil pipeline seems closer to becoming a reality now that Tanzania has announced that they have completed geophysical and geological studies . This was announced by DR Kalemani Energy Minister for Tanzania who sought to allay rumors that the project may not see the light of day. The minister was speaking to the press in the company of his Ugandan counterpart Eng. Irene Muloni in Dar-es-salaam. 1400km pipeline When completed the pipeline will stretch from Hoima in Uganda to the Tanzanian Port of Tanga on the East African coast a distance of over 1400 kilometers and will cost an estimated US$ 4 billion. It is expected that 70 percent of the funding for the project will be raised by Uganda and Tanzania while the rest will come from Tullow and CNOOC. Also Read:Uganda, Tanzania sign deal for construction of US$ 4bn crude export pipeline Forth largest crude reserves in Africa The Homa to Tanga crude oil pipeline will deliver crude oil fr...

The government of Zambia is set to enhance electricity supply in the Eastern province through setting up a wind energy plant in Katete district. Katetet District Council Chairperson, Jeremiah Mawere confirmed the reports and said that implementation of the project, will create a new source for energy generation, an electricity grid infrastructure close to consumers in the district, thus creating electric power supply stability. Impact assessment Mr. Jeremiah Mawere further added that the  Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA)  is carrying out an impact assessment on the area apportioned for the plant.“ Mpepo wind energy, the company in charge of setting up the plant, will be harvesting wind thereafter, produce electricity. The identified area for the plant is in Chief Mbang’ombe’s area,” he said. The plant will not just enhance electricity supply but will also create employment and increase economic activities in the district. In add...

Nigeria’s state oil firm NNPC has extended its crude-for-product swap contracts, the country’s main avenue to meet the bulk of its fuel needs, until June 2019, sources familiar with the matter said. Despite having a refining capacity of about 445,000 barrels per day, its plants have been underperforming for years, making Africa’s biggest oil producer almost wholly dependent on imports to meet its domestic gasoline and diesel needs. (Reporting by Julia Payne; Additional reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram in Lagos; Editing by Adrian Croft)

South Africa state-owned power utility Eskom has successfully synchronized unit 2 of the Medupi Power Station, set to be the largest dry-cooled power station in the world once complete to the national power grid eight months ahead of schedule. Eskom’s group executive for group capital, Abram Masango confirmed the report and said, the unit was loaded to 400MW, making it the fifth of the six Medupi units to be synchronised to the national grid. “The achievement of Unit 2 first synchronisation, marks a key milestone towards the full commercial operation of the unit. Lessons learnt on previous units were implemented on Unit 2, leading to the swiftness in delivering first power,” said Mr. Abram. Medupi Power Station The plant which will also be the fourth largest coal-fired power plant, is located in Lephalale, Limpopo. It is a greenfield coal-fired power plant comprising six units rated in total at 4,764MW installed capacity. It will be able to meet the elec...

From basic lighting solutions to mini-grids, Africa’s decentralised renewable energy (DRE) market has recorded significant growth with 11.2 million units of branded pico-solar products sold between 2009 and the first quarter of 2015. Geospatial analysis by the International Energy Agency suggests that the most cost-effective solution for electrifying at least two-thirds of rural households by 2030 will be through DRE. Are you ready to take up the opportunities that this market presents? According to the IEA, 588 million people in Africa are currently without access to electricity. While Asia’s off-grid population has halved since 1990, in Africa this has increased by 211 million people since 1990 and is projected to continue rising for the next decade. These statistics put Africa’s DRE market opportunity at the very top of the energy access prospect ladder globally, second only after India. This article first appeared in ESI Africa Edition 4, 2018. You can read the full digita...

Tema LNG Terminal Company has signed an agreement with the China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) for the construction of a $350 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Tema. The LNG Terminal is being constructed on the back of a 12-year gas supply agreement that was executed between the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and Rosneft, Business Ghana reported. The project is expected to be completed in 18 months and will be sub-Saharan Africa’s first regasification terminal, according to media. Speaking at the signing ceremony, President Akufo-Addo said the Tema LNG Terminal project was a testament to the efforts put in place by the government over the last 19 months to encourage private sector participation in the growth of the economy. “If we are going to succeed in rapidly pushing the industrial development of our country, the supply of gas, which will mean even more affordable rates of power, is now a matter of very great importance for us,” ...

Ethiopian President Mulartu Teshome inaugurated the Reppie waste-to-energy facility, Africa’s first waste-to-energy facility set up in the country. President Mulatu during the inauguration event said investment in energy projects is crucial if Ethiopia is to achieve its aim of becoming an environmentally friendly industrialized middle-income economy by 2025. “As Africa’s first waste-to-energy facility, Reppie’s completion and operation shows great vision,” he said. “It has found a green road to urban development in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Africa,” said the President. Also Read:Environment-friendly wastewater treatment plant launched in South Africa The Reppie waste-to-energy facility The Reppie waste-to-energy facility is located in Addis Ababa, was constructed by China National Electrical Engineering Company (CNEEC) but fully financed by the Ethiopian government. The project according to Mulartu is expected to process 1,400 tons of solid waste daily. According to th...

The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) recently released its 2017 financial report. One of the takeaways from that report is that net profit took a turn for the worse falling from N149 billion to N27 billion representing a decrease of 82%. The media is already awash with that news and we will, therefore, not bother readers with it in this piece. However, there are a few things that have not been talked about, not even by Dr Uche Orji, the Managing Director and CEO of the Authority, in his press conference after the release but the eagle eyes of analysts at Quantitative Financial Analytics Ltd have been able to catch those observations. One of such is that the NSIA re-balanced their investment portfolio in terms of geographical allocation of assets. That rebalancing led to a reduction in exposure to the Middle East and the US. In 2016, out of the group’s total investment portfolio value of N399.7 billion, N121 billion or 30% was invested in various investment types ...

An innovative multi-million-dollar programme in Kenya seeks to connect 14,000 households and businesses to green mini-grids by the end of 2018. The programme dubbed the  Green Mini Grid (GMG) Facility Kenya  aims to achieve this through scaling up private utilities delivering renewable electricity to rural communities. It is based on results-based financing and could be a model for other sub-Saharan countries dealing with energy poverty. This initiative is the brainchild of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), recently provided funds to three private utilities namely; RVE.SOL, PowerGen Renewable Energy and Powerhive to build sites in dozens of villages located in four counties in the western part of the country. According to the companies, total grants allocated for the projects amount to about €5.2 million ($6 million). Localised power generation Mini-grids are localised power generation and distribution infrastructure, ideal for serving remo...

In response to low electrification rates in some remote areas across Africa, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a proposal to help Zola EDF Côte d’Ivoire (ZECI), to mobilise a loan in local currency to the tune of $28 million. The loan has been arranged by Société Générale de Banque in Côte d’Ivoire (SGBCI) and Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (Crédit Agricole CIB). The AfDB will provide a partial credit guarantee covering part of the guaranteed loan facility as a catalyst. NEoT CI, the special purpose vehicle currently being created to mobilise the receivables-backed senior loan is sponsored by NEoT Offgrid Africa (NOA), an investment platform focused on distributed energy in Africa, managed by NEoT Capital, with Meridiam and EDF as investors. Additionally, the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation will participate in the financing of ZECI and will monitor environmental and social norms for the duration of the transaction. Local currency financin...

Africa’s second most populous country Ethiopia, has set an ambitious target to double the length of its roads network by 2020 from its extent in 2015.This is according to the government’s road authority . In 2015, at the end of GTP-I, the road network had reached 100,000km. Now the network stands at 121,171km, according to the roads ministry, including gravel roads. This represents a large expansion from 1990, when there were just 19,000km of roads. About 90% of them are asphalt. Ethiopia’s road-building now consumes about a quarter of the federal government’s annual infrastructure spending.According to Samson Wondimu, a Director at the Ministry, the road building programme had spent about US $11bn over the past 20 years, and that the annual budget for the roads sector had grown 20% to reach US $1.7bn. The present programme includes flagship projects such as the 200km Hawassa expressway in the central-southern area of the country, which got under way after a 4 year ...

South African state owned utilty  Eskom Holdings SOC  Ltd has signed a Power Purchase Agreement, PPA with  Building Energy  for the construction of the 147 MW wind farm in Roggeveld and a 4.7 MW mini hydroelectric plant in Free State which will see the overall investment in the construction of the two plants amounts to US $376 m. The agreement was officiated with the presence of South African Energy Minister Jeff Radebe and Matteo Brambilla, Building Energy Managing Director Africa and Middle East. “We are delighted to have signed the agreement for the construction of the Roggeveld plant, which represents our first wind farm in South Africa”, said Matteo Brambilla. The wind farm is set to generate around 613 GWh per year where else the small-hydroelectric plant will generate around 28 GWh of energy annually on completion. The energy generated will satisfy the energy needs of roughly 49.200 households every year while avoiding the emission of about 502.900 to...

South Africa is considering an initial price talk into the Eurobond market of about 6% and 6.37%. South Africa is hoping to ride a wave of improved investor sentiment by tapping the Eurobond market for the first time under new President Cyril Ramaphosa, as his administration tackles mismanagement and corruption in the continent’s most industrialised economy. The country is marketing dollar securities maturing in 2030 and 2048, with initial price talk of about 6% and 6.37%, respectively, according to a person familiar with the transaction, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorised to speak about it. South Africa had budgeted to sell $3 billion of international debt this fiscal year, according to Treasury documents. South African assets have outperformed emerging markets overall since late last year, as Ramaphosa, then deputy president and a former businessman and lawyer, manoeuvred to succeed Jacob Zuma as president. The rand has strengthened 16% against ...

Zimbabwe: Hwange Thermal Power Station to reach financial close INFRASTRUCTURE Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ) chief economist Khutula Sibanda says Zimbabwe needs around $5 billion annually for trade and finance in the retooling of the industrial sector and infrastructure development. BY SILAS NKALA Sibanda made the remarks yesterday during a meeting of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair on the sidelines of the 59th edition, wherein he focused on manufacturing industry equipment needs as a way for the country to revamp productivity. Sibanda said according to African Development Bank (AfDB) trade and finance for Africa was around $110 billion. “According to the AfDB the study has discovered that the trade finance for Africa is around $110 billion after the establishment of around 34 African countries Zimbabwe included,” he said. “For Zimbabwe, the insane debt is more than $1 billion. That figure summaries all the things...