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DRC’s Inga Hydropower Plant Gets $68M AfDB Grant

DRC’s Inga Hydropower Plant Gets $68M AfDB Grant

From Ventures Africa

African Development Bank Group (AfDB) says it has approved $68 million for the multinational Inga Site Development and Electricity Access Support Project (PASEL) in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“The project will further the development of the Inga hydropower plant located on the banks of the Congo River with a vast hydro-electric potential estimated at 44,000 MW – half of the continent’s installed electricity capacity” read an official statement.

The AfDB’s support, which comes in the form of a Fragile States Facility grant of $7.7 million and an African Development Fund grant of $60.6 million, accounts for 43 percent of the total project cost of $169 million.

With this approval, the support of the AfDB to the Inga project since inception will amount to $90 million.

PASEL will finalize the preparation of the first phase of the Grand Inga Hydropower Project, called the Inga 3 Project, which will consist of developing a power-generating capacity of 4,800 MW on the Inga site and building power transmission lines that will supply electricity to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and to the Republic of South Africa.

“This is the right project for the DRC and the Bank – at the right time,” said Alex Rugamba, Director of the AfDB’s Energy, Environment and Climate Change Department. “It is timely because it facilitates the implementation of Inga 3 whose investment costs would otherwise be difficult to mobilize in the current context of the DRC.”

Written by Ehidiamhen Okpamen | Read more at Ventures Africa