Mixed Reactions in Guinea Over $66 M AfDB Loan to Extend Access to Electricity

By Mory TOUNDOUFÉDOUNO, West Africa Editor, THE African Gazette

Conakry July 20, 2022- Guineans are divided over the country support package from the African Development Bank (AfDB) intended to help extend access to electricity to individual households, women’s associations, health centers, schools and businesses from two different regions.

“This is just a fuss aiming at distracting people from their normal business; the money will never be used to the intended purpose,” stated Mohamed Cissé, a businessman in the Guinean capital, Conakry speaking to The African Gazette.

“The country has benefited a great deal from such funding but we’re yet to experience any major changes in our electricity sector,” he added.

Maimouna Diallo, a healthcare worker in Kankan said, “Guinea is known as a water tower of West Africa, but the country seriously lacks electricity connection”.

The fund is part of the Project to Improve Access to Electricity in Guinea (PAAEG).

Expressing his delight over the impact of the PAAEG in the upgrading of transport and distribution infrastructures for universal access to electricity for the Guinean populations, the Bank Group’s Country Manager for Guinea, Léandre Bassolé underlined the preponderant share that the electricity sector occupies in the AfDB portfolio in Guinea (40% of the volume of AfDB commitments in the country).
According to him, the country’s electricity coverage rate is 45% on average (16% in rural areas and 88% in urban areas) with a huge disparity in this sense, some areas particularly in Upper Guinea or Forest Guinea are at less than 1%, plunged into absolute darkness.
AfDB Country Representative finally invited all decision-makers and actors in the field “to make better use of resources released for the benefit of the Guinean populations,” he
warned, adding, “public lighting will increase security and give women more time in which to conduct their commercial activities and schoolchildren opportunities to improve their academic performance,” Bassolé said during the signing of this Financing Agreement on July 19, 2022, barely a few weeks after the holding of the Guinean Public Expenditure Review Workshop in the Energy Sector.

Present at the ceremony, the Minister of Energy, Hydraulics and Hydrocarbons, Ibrahima Abbé Sylla thanked the AfDB for the gesture and at the same time made a commitment to the efficient use of resources. “This reinforces the Government action underway in the field and our readiness to provide electricity to the hamlets and villages in the near future”, Minister Sylla concluded.

In addition to the deployment of electricity infrastructure, the project is expected to support reform initiatives in the electricity subsector and capacity building for its stakeholders. It will also promote the productive use of electricity by providing women’s groups with equipment to increase their productivity.

The Project for Access to Electricity in Guinea (PAEG) is part of the national program for access to electricity at a lower cost; a policy of the Guinean government which essentially aims for universal access to electricity by 2030.

The Bank bases its country strategy for Guinea on two priority areas: improving access to electricity and developing agro-industrial value chains.

Over the past decade, the African Development Bank Group has tripled its net commitments to Guinea. The Bank Group’s current portfolio comprises 21 operations totaling around $625 million. Emphasis is placed on energy and transport infrastructure (65.7%), aimed at strengthening regional integration. The remaining investments cover mining (15.9%), governance (6.7%), agriculture (4.2%), the environment (3%), the social sector (2.6%), and finance (1.9%).

The African Development Bank Group is Africa’s premier development finance institution contributing to the economic development and the social progress of its 54 regional member States.

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