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A
Profile of the Azito Energie Project in West Africa:
Meeting Côte d'Ivoire's Energy Needs through Private
Sector Investment
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Jim Wolfensohn,
President of The World Bank, and Prince Rahim Aga
Khan, Director of AKFED, chatted before the inauguration
ceremony of the Azito Energie Project in 1999.
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The developing world
needs more electricity, telephones, clean water, and transport
and governments are encouraging the private sector to take
a role in providing these basic services. AKFED is responding
to the challenge and is looking at infrastructure projects
in telecommunications, water and sewerage, and power generation.
The Azito project was AKFED's first investment in the power
sector; it was followed various other energy projects in
East and West Africa as well as Central Asia.
The Largest Private Sector
Power Plant in
Sub-Saharan Africa
The Azito power facility is the largest private sector
power plant in sub-Saharan Africa, developed and operated
by the Swiss/Swedish ABB, the French Electricité
de France, and AKFED's venture capital arm in West Africa,
Industrial Promotion Services. Azito is the largest gas-fired
power station in West Africa. The 290 MegaWatt project,
developed on a build-own-transfer basis, commenced electricity
production in March 1999 and makes use of Côte d'Ivoire's
supplies of natural gas.
The financing of this US$ 225 million private infrastructure
project was provided by the shareholders and by way of
loans from international and bilateral development agencies
including International Finance Corporation (IFC), Commonwealth
Development Corporation (CDC), African Development Bank
(ADB), Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO),
and the German investment and development company (DEG)
and commercial banks. The financing benefited from a Partial
Risk Guarantee issued by the International Development
Association (IDA) the soft-loan arm of The World Bank,
the first guarantee of its kind.
Production Contributes to more than 40% of Côte
d'Ivoire's Electricity Generation
Azito produces more than 40% of the Côte d'Ivoire's
electricity generation and its production is principally
exported to neighbouring countries. The Azito project
is a good example of the relevance of private sector support
in economic development, responding to the growing demand
in the developing world for improved and reliable infrastructure
services.
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