AfDB sanctions loan for Desert to Power Yeleen programme in Burkina Faso

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank has approved a 48.82 million euro loan to the Government of Burkina Faso for the Yeleen solar plant. The loan is intended to boost national power supply.

Yeleen, which is to be implemented under the African Development Bank's Desert to Power ( DTP) Initiative, and which will span a period of five years from 2020-2024, is the second project under the DTP initiative in Burkina Faso. The total project cost is estimated at 136.69 million euro. The rest of the financing for Yeleen is provided by Agence Française de Développement (AFD), European Union (EU) and Société Nationale d'électricité du Burkina Faso (SONABEL).

The electricity access rate in Burkina Faso is one of the lowest in Africa at around 21 percent at national level in 2018. Upon completion, the project will increase and diversify electricity supply through the construction of four new 52 MWc photovoltaic (PV) plants and extend power distribution networks to connect 30,000 new households, or about 200,000 people. It will also contribute to the avoidance of 48,000 tCO2eq (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) emissions annually.

"This project will augment the African Development Bank's efforts to ensure inclusive access to energy through improvements in rural electrification, regional interconnections and energy sector reforms. Notably, it will increase Burkina Faso's generation capacity by 15 percent, which will greatly help to reduce Burkina Faso's reliance on fossil fuel imports," the Bank's Acting Vice-President for Power, Energy, Climate Change & Green Growth, Wale Shonibare opined.

"With this project, we are making concrete progress on two of the five priority areas under the Desert to Power initiative which include adding new solar generation capacity and strengthening the transmission and distribution networks," said Dr. Daniel Schroth, the Bank's Acting Director for Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency said.

The project aligns with Bank's Country strategy paper for Burkina Faso (CSP 2017-2021), its High-5 "Light Up and Power Africa"initiative, and the Bank's Climate Change plan. Desert to Power initiative intends to speed up the economic development by adding solar energy generation capacity of up to 10 GW by 2025 through a combination of public and private interventions.