By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Launched in Côte d’Ivoire in 2019, the Project to Improve Access to Electricity in Rural Areas has already connected 260 localities to the national electric grid.
At the conclusion of the works, which is scheduled for the end of 2023, a total of 460 localities will have access to electricity, according to the African Development Bank’s implementation and results report, published on 29 July 2022.
Costing €48.51 million, the project is 87 percent funded by the African Development Bank Group, with the Ivorian government covering the remaining 13 percent.
About half of the project has already been completed, which equates to the construction of 154 kilometres of high-voltage lines and 124 km of new high- and low-voltage transformer stations.
In addition, the length of low-voltage lines has already reached 921 km and is likely to be increased to 1,392 km to take into account changes that have occurred in the meantime during the roll-out of the project (alterations to routes, extensions in the new districts of certain localities).
To date, 2,302 street lighting units have already been installed, a number that is expected to increase to 32,838 by the end of the project, including extensions in the new outlying districts in some localities.
The project has enabled 1,192 new subscribers to connect to the national electric grid. “Resources are being mobilised from the African Development Group in support of the Ivoirian government’s ‘Electricity For All Programme’, which will help boost the number of connected households so that the new subscriber figure reaches 23,459,” according to the Bank’s report.
As regards monitoring activities, four training sessions were run for 39 agents of Côte d’Ivoire Énergies, the public company that manages the electricity sector.
The sessions focused on the management and control of distribution works, the use of sizing software, the digital control system, and the application of geographic information systems to environmental and social assessments.
In total, 215 people, including 26 women, were recruited by the companies in charge of the works. All non-specialist staff were hired from the communities living in the project area.
With a national electricity coverage rate of 80 percent at the end of 2021, versus 70.2 percent in 2018, “the implementation of the project will contribute significantly to the increase in the national electricity coverage rate, and consequently to the national rate of access to electricity” in Côte d’Ivoire, according to the African Development Bank report, which concludes that the country could, if the same pace is maintained, achieve its objective of universal access to electricity by 2025.