China accounts for 30% growth in Africa’s power sector – IEA

The International Energy Agency (IEA), has said that China now accounts for 30 percent of Africa’s energy growth, with more than 200 Greenfield power projects contracted to Chinese companies in the last five years, even as it has completed not less than three projects in Nigeria, Vanguard reports.
                                                                    

IEA, in its July 2016 publication, titled “Boosting the Power Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa: China’s Involvement” stated that project investments are estimated at about $13 billion between 2010 and 2015 from China, which were financed largely through public lending from China. The report also stated that Chinese contractors have built or are contracted to build 17 Gigawatts of generation capacity in sub-Saharan Africa from 2010 to 2020, equivalent to 10 percent of existing installed capacity in sub-Saharan Africa, or to Finland’s total installed capacity.

In West Africa, most Chinese-built capacity is in gas-fired power plants, especially in Nigeria which has enormous natural gas resources. In Nigeria alone, Chinese companies have completed three projects totalling 1.5 GW, with some advanced technologies provided by Western original equipment manufacturers, OEMs, such as General Electric, GE.