Mr. Christian Adovelande, President of the West African Development Bank (BOAD) and Mrs. Hadizatou Rosine Coulibaly, Minister of Economy, Finance and Development of Burkina Faso, have signed three loan agreements relating to the feasibility study for the construction of 3 dams and development of 600 hectares of land along the Faga watercourse, the upgrading of the interconnected national power grid and the 2017-2019 road maintenance programme. These three key projects are part of the country’s economic and social development plan.
The feasibility study will, for one, involve the designing of three water dams and 600 hectares of irrigated lands for the beneficiary communities, and on the other, provide a good estimate of the cost of works in order to successfully complete the fundraising stage. The Bank will provide a cash advance of XOF250 million to this operation.
The reinforcement of the interconnected national power grid is the second operation amounting to XOF9.5 billion supported from BOAD’s Energy Development Fund (FDE). The project will involve the upgrading of the transmission grid with the closure of the 90 kV loop from Ouagadougou, the extension and upgrading of the Zagtouli-Koudougou transmission line into 90 kV, construction of the 33 kV Zagtouli-Tanghin Dassouri transmission lines, and integration of the new facilities into the control systems of the national control centre (CNC). This project will contribute to the progressive integration of Burkina’s national grid into the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP) for better power management within the country and across the sub-region with countries such as Nigeria, Niger, Benin, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Mali.
The first project financed in Burkina Faso by the Energy Development Fund (FDE) involved the strengthening of power generation capacity of the Komsilga plant, for an amount of XOF20,000 M, which is nearing completion.
The 2017-2019 road maintenance programme, on its part, is intended to develop and ensure durability of the roads in order to sustain the country’s economic growth. BOAD will provide an amount of XOF30 billion, representing 88.36% of the project’s total cost. These three loan agreements bring to XOF509.4 billion the total amount of loans granted by BOAD to the Government of Burkina Faso.
Original source: BOAD
Published on 6 November 2017
