THE AFRICA BAZAAR Staff Writer
November 10, 2015
Access Infra Africa said Tuesday it signed a joint development agreement with Quaint Global Energy Solutions (Quaint) to invest $100 million into ABIBA Solar project, a 50MW solar power plant being developed in Nigeria.
The solar power plants, which will generate 82,500 megawatt hours of clean electricity, will be located in the Northern part of the country in Kaduna state.
The companies say more than 600,000 Nigerian households will benefit from the solar project once it has been built.
The signing ceremony of the agreement took place at the Abuja headquarters of Nigeria Ministry of Power.
Reda El Chaar, Executive Chairman of Access, said the company sees “this project as a gateway to the widespread adoption of renewable energy in Africa’s largest economy, whilst cementing the role of ACF as an innovative platform for tuning good concepts into bankable projects.”
The project was picked from among 55 entrants from the Access Co-Development Facility (ACF) competition, an innovative Africa-focused competition that Access launched earlier this year designed to bridge the gap between early stage renewable energy projects and the resources they require to become operational.
Nigeria-based Quaint and Flatbush Solar from Cameroon emerged winners of the inaugural competition, which ran in 18 countries across Africa.
Access said the sophomore edition of the competition will be formally launched next year on February 18 in Amsterdam, leading up to the final round of selection at the Africa Energy Forum in June 2016 in London.
Established in 2012 with the goal of developing, operating and owning power assets in Africa, Access Infra Africa is actively developing a portfolio of renewable energy projects in 17 African countries worth over US$1 billion.
The company has assembled a development team to help expand its portfolio across the Middle east and Africa region.
In April, Access Power signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy (MERE) to develop a 65MWp of renewable energy solar plant in Aswan and agreed to a long-term lease of the land on which the PV projects will be built.
At the time of the announcement in April, the company also said it was in talks with the Egyptian government to develop a 50MW wind project in Zafaran.
Construction of the power plants are expected to commence in 2016 and once completed will have a combined value of $200 million, the company said.
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