Cameroon's Kribi plant set to start from Q1 2013

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Construction of Cameroon's 216 MW Kribi gas-fired power plant should go operational in the first quarter of 2013, the general manager of the country's lone public power supply company AES-Sonel said on Wednesday.


"I am pleased to inform you that we've acquired all the funds needed for the construction of the project, whose total cost stands at 173.2 billion CFA francs," AES-Sonel's Jean David Bile told a news conference.

"We reached agreement with all the lending partners in Paris last month. International funding partners will provide 75 percent - that is about 130 billlion CFA francs, while the remainder will come from local lenders."
He thanked the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Standard Chartered Bank Cameroon for not only providing some of the funds but for also coordinating the syndicated and parallel loans of international and local lenders.
Bile said construction of the project was fully under way and expected to be completed by December this year.
He said Kribi would boost the country's electricity supply to 1,238 MW up from the present 1,037 MW and help meet the rise in domestic demand estimated at about eight percent every year.

The World Bank estimates power shortages currently cost the Cameroonian economy two percentage points of GDP growth a year.

Increasing power generation capacity and efficiency is at the core of the government's "Vision 2035" plan to turn the oil-producing country into an emerging economy.