The African Development Bank and the Republic of the Congo have signed two grant agreements totalling $1.5 million to strengthen the country's energy sector and improve people's access to electricity and reduce the country's energy deficit.
The first grant, of $585,000 mobilized from the Middle Income Country Technical Assistance Fund, will help fund development studies for hydroelectric dams. The aim is to facilitate the future development of hydroelectric infrastructure at the Mbanza Ndounga in the south of the country and Linzolo - 20 km to the south of the capital, Brazzaville - sites to increase electricity production capacity and promote energy self-sufficiency.
The second grant of $995,000 - mobilized from resources from the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Trust Fund (KOAFEC) - will be used to fund the feasibility study and detailed design of transmission lines between Pointe-Noire and Brazzaville, and between Loudima and Djambala.
The agreements were signed in Brazzaville on 26 February 2025 by Solomane Koné, the Bank Group's acting Director General for the Central Africa region, and Ludovic Ngatse, Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Integration and the Bank's governor for Congo.
"These agreements are a sign of the close relationship that the government maintains with the African Development Bank for the development of Congo. The various studies will accompany the implementation of Congo's strategy in terms of the electrification of its urban centres but also its rural areas, the aim being to work towards universal access to electricity for the whole of the Congolese population," commented Minister Ngatse.
These grants will be used to prepare core, short-term investment projects, which will allow Congo to achieve its objectives in terms of access to energy in alignment with "Mission 300", an initiative between the African Development Bank and the World Bank aimed at supplying electricity to 300 million people in Africa by 2030.
"For the last decade, the African Development Bank Group has been developing significant initiatives and global partnerships to densify investments in the energy sector by involving different actors. 'Mission 300', the Desert to Power initiative and the Africa Energy Market Place have all been put in place to support our countries' ambitions in terms of access to energy," emphasized Koné.
The African Development Bank is a key partner for Congo. Its support for the energy sector is part of its Country Strategy Paper (CSP) for Congo, which aims to develop sustainable infrastructure to help strengthen value chains with high growth potential. It is also a tangible expression of a shared political will between the Bank and Congo at the highest level.
