AfDB backs Ivorian power grid expansion

Côte d’Ivoire is set to extend electricity access to more than 100,000 households after the African Development Bank Group approved €103.14 million in financing for a major grid-expansion programme aimed at strengthening the country’s power system and narrowing remaining access gaps.

The financing, approved by the bank’s Board of Directors in Abidjan on 15 May 2026, will support the second phase of the Project to Strengthen the Structures of the Electricity System and Access to Electricity, known as PROSER II. The programme is designed to increase household connections to the national grid, reinforce distribution infrastructure and support the government’s broader push towards universal electricity access.

The project is expected to connect about 107,000 households, extending supply to communities where access has been constrained by the cost of last-mile connections, limited distribution capacity and uneven service quality. It comes as Côte d’Ivoire seeks to convert high national grid coverage into actual household connections, a distinction that remains central to energy policy across West Africa.

Côte d’Ivoire has made significant gains in power availability over the past decade, helped by investment in generation, transmission and rural electrification. The share of the population living in electrified areas rose from about 74% in 2011 to 97% in 2023, while the household connection rate increased from 23% to 64% over the same period. That progress has positioned the country among the stronger performers in the region, though access still varies sharply between urban centres and lower-income rural communities.

PROSER II is expected to improve distribution networks, increase the number of affordable connections and reduce bottlenecks that have limited the uptake of electricity in areas already close to the grid. The wider project cost is estimated at more than €230 million, with support involving development finance partners and national energy institutions. CI-Energies, the state-owned entity responsible for electricity asset management and sector investment planning, is listed as the contracting authority.

The programme aligns with Côte d’Ivoire’s strategy to build a more resilient power system while expanding access to households, small businesses, schools, clinics and public facilities. Reliable electricity is a central requirement for refrigeration, digital connectivity, irrigation, modern retail, education services and healthcare delivery, particularly outside Abidjan and other major urban centres.

The financing also fits within a broader continental effort to accelerate access to power in Sub-Saharan Africa, where hundreds of millions of people remain without electricity. Rural communities face the steepest barriers because homes are often dispersed, connection costs are high and projected consumption may be too low to attract purely commercial investment. These conditions have made concessional finance, public investment and blended funding central to electricity-access programmes.

Côte d’Ivoire’s power sector is relatively diversified compared with several neighbouring markets, with generation drawn from natural gas, hydropower and a growing renewable-energy pipeline. Authorities have also sought to strengthen cross-border electricity trade, with the country already serving as a regional supplier to parts of West Africa. The challenge is now less about national grid reach alone and more about affordability, quality of supply and the pace of household connections.

Affordability remains one of the main constraints. Many households live near electricity infrastructure but remain unconnected because connection charges, internal wiring costs and monthly bills can be difficult to absorb. Programmes such as PROSER II aim to reduce those barriers by financing connection expansion and grid densification, allowing more households to move from informal energy sources, kerosene lamps or small generators to formal electricity supply.

The project is also expected to have economic effects beyond household consumption. Expanded access can support small workshops, cold storage, food processing, mobile money services and local retail activity. For women and young people, electricity can reduce time spent on manual household tasks, improve studying conditions and support income-generating activity after daylight hours.

Energy specialists have cautioned that connections alone will not guarantee development gains unless supply is reliable and utilities remain financially stable. Côte d’Ivoire’s authorities will therefore need to balance rapid expansion with maintenance spending, tariff affordability, loss reduction and investment in digital grid management. Weaknesses in these areas can undermine electrification gains by producing outages, voltage instability and rising sector debt.