The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) has allocated $4.9 million to Sierra Leone to finance preparatory activities for the development of the Bumbuna II hydroelectric power plant. It will have a production capacity of 143 MW and will double the electrification rate in urban areas.
The Bumbuna II hydroelectric power plant is entering its final development phase. The final preparatory work is in progress. The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) has just allocated $4.9 million to the government. The plant will be built on the Seli River in the Tonkolii district of Tonkolii (northeast of Sierra Leone), located nearly 350 kilometres from the capital Freetown.
The construction of the plant will be carried out by the energy company Seli Hydro Power, with Joule Africa, a developer and operator of green energy projects in Africa, as project manager. The company is also developing a 285 MW hydroelectric project in Cameroon. The Bumbuna power plant complements a first unit already installed on the same site and with a production capacity of 50 MW. At the end of the works, the Bumbuna II power plant will supply 80 MW of electricity to Sierra Leone each year, which will double the country’s rate of access to electricity and will significantly contribute to achieving the government’s objective: a rate of 30% by 2030, compared to only 13% in 2018. The plant will also supply electricity exports to Ivory Coast, Liberia and Guinea through the transmission line of the West African Power Pool (WAPP), an ECOWAS institution that integrates national electricity grids into a unified regional electricity market.
For DBSA Group Director Mohale Rakgate, the project “will help reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels and emergency energy by providing Sierra Leone with green electricity at an affordable cost”. He also points out that the funding, provided by the structure he heads, will “facilitate the bankability and ultimate success of the project. ”The development of the energy sector is essential to Sierra Leone’s socio-economic growth,” he added. »
Luchelle Feukeng
