![[Mali] 12,500 new subscribers connected to the national grid with $ 28 million funding from African Development Bank](Electricity Ethiopia.jpg)
[Mali] 12,500 new subscribers connected to the national grid with $ 28 million funding from African Development Bank
The year 2018 is starting well for the rural populations of Mali: nearly 12,500 new subscribers living in rural areas will soon be connected to the electricity grid thanks to a financing of more than 28 million US dollars provided by the African Bank of development.
The signing ceremony of the Financing Agreement took place in Abidjan, at the Bank's headquarters in Côte d'Ivoire, between the Malian Minister of Economy and Finance, Boubou Cissé, and the Director General of the Bank. African Development Bank for the West Africa Region, Janvier Litse.
Granted in the form of a grant from the Transition Support Facility , a Bank Facility for Fragile States, this financing will enable the construction of two mini-hydroelectric power plants, one in Djenne (Central-West) and the West Bank. another at Talo (Center), with a total capacity of 8.9 MW, (7.5 MW in Djenné and 1.4 MW in Talo.
The energy generated by these two mini-power plants will benefit 55 rural localities through a distribution network consisting of 231 km of medium-voltage line and 275 km of low-voltage line.
"For the African Development Bank, this project is important because it will improve the access rate of rural Malians to electricity, because it will help create more than 400 jobs, including young people and women, "said Janvier Litse.
For his part, the Malian Minister of Economy and Finance emphasized that the project was part of Mali's broader national strategy, structured around the Large Scale Renewable Energy Renewal Program (SREP) , a program that supports the African Development Bank.
"This is a structuring project for Mali, which combines two major requirements: bringing electricity to Mali to improve the lives of people and preserve the environment through the production of renewable energies", insisted Boubou Cissé, who is also governor of the African Development Bank for Mali.
In addition to preserving the environment, the mini-hydropower project will help reduce regional disparities and social inequities in access to electricity - challenges in "electrifying and lighting Africa" and "improving the living conditions of the people in Africa " , two of the Bank's five major strategic priorities, called High 5 .
The $ 28 million donation comes just weeks after another donated more than 42 million granted by the African Development Fund (ADF) of the Bank, to finance the electrical interconnection of Guinea and Mali with construction of a 714 km high-voltage line connecting the localities of N'Zerekore (Guinea) and Sanankoroba (Mali).
Mali and the African Development Bank have been maintaining dense and fruitful bilateral cooperation since 1970, highlighted by a financial commitment of more than $ 1.7 billion in the country.
