The board of directors of the African Development Bank has approved a loan of $42.9m to finance the second phase of a major power transmission and interconnection project in Madagascar.
The Power Transmission Network Reinforcement and Interconnection Project in Madagascar includes the construction of a 135-km, 220 kV interconnection line between the capital Antananarivo and the central industrial city of Antsirabé.
The project will help to feed the power generated by the Sahofika Hydropower Plant into the national grid, supplying some eight million people with affordable, clean energy.
The financing comprises a loan of $28.6m from the African Development Fund, the concessional lending window of the bank, and a loan of $14.3m from Pillar 1 of the Transition Support Facility, the bank’s financing mechanism for fragile and transition countries.
The second phase of the project also includes the electrification of 19 villages in the Soanindrariny, Ambohidranandriana, Ambatomena, and Ambohimiarivo municipal councils of central Madagascar, a country which, despite having huge renewable energy potential, has an electricity access rate of only 15 per cent nationally and six per cent in rural areas.
The financing was approved on 11 December.
