Image: Cameroon-report.com
The World Bank has approved $794.5 million investment for the Nachtigal hydropower project in Cameroon. The investment package will help Cameroon accomplish its goal of improving access to electricity by over 80 percent of the population by 2022.
The 420 MW Nachtigal facility is located on the Sanga river and consists of a dam and power plant with seven generation units, a substation and transmission line.
Once complete, Nachtigal will increase Cameroon’s power generation capacity by 30 percent. In a statement release last week, World Bank Country Director for Cameroon Elisabeth Huybens said: “The Nachtigal project is one of the very few public-private partnership hydropower projects in Sub-Saharan Africa that will accelerate Cameroon’s realization of its development goals, including poverty reduction.”
The World Bank Group Cameroon’s participation in the project is a continuation of its 20-year engagement in the country’s energy sector. Other shareholders include the government, Électricité de France and the International Finance Corporation. “[A]s Global Coordinator of the Project’s senior debt, IFC has mobilized the entire debt package, including senior loans from development finance institutions and local commercial banks of around €735 million ($ 859 million equivalent),” said Oumar Seydi, IFC Director for Africa in the statement.
