Published: April 13, 2011
Funds will increase power supply in Sierra Leone.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved the largest public sector loan in Sierra Leone’s agriculture sector to date after it agreed to provide €25mn for a bioenergy project.
Addax Bioenergy Sierra Leone (ABSL) will use the funds to develop a greenfield sugarcane plantation of some 10,000 hectares, build an integrated bioenergy facility and a 32-Mega-Watt biomass co-generation power plant.
The project will generate some 960,000 tons of sugarcane a year that will produce 83,000 cubic meters of anhydrous ethanol for export and domestic consumption. It will generate 165 Giga-Watt hour (GWh) of electricity, some 100 GWh of which will be for the domestic market.
The ABSL project will increase electricity supply throughout the country to enhance agricultural productivity and attract foreign investment.