The USD 140 million financing agreement was signed recently by Emmanuel M. Tutuba, the Permanent Secretary of the Tanzanian Ministry of Finance and Planning, and Nnenna Nwabufo, the Director General of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group’s Regional Development and Service Delivery Office for East Africa. For this clean energy project, the African Development Bank is providing a concessional loan of USD 120 million.
The other part of the financing, US$ 20 million, is provided by the Growing Together Africa Fund (GTAF). This is a USD 2 billion co-financing fund set up in the year 2014 by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). The African Development Bank and the Africa Growing Together Fund financing was granted last year in November. The Malagarasi Hydropower Project is being implemented in Kigoma and Uvinza District Councils, Kigoma Region, western Tanzania.
This project involves the construction of a run of river power plant. The plant will harness the Igamba Falls on the Malagarasi River. According to Studio Pietrangeli, which provided the engineering services for the preparation and implementation of the future power plant, the project includes a gravity overflow weir of about 600 meter in length that diverts flows to the waterway. The waterway system includes a culvert, approximately 1 kilometre long, which leads the discharges to short penstocks, through an external force main and then to the 50 MW power plant built on the right bank of the river.
The project also includes the construction of about 53 kilometre of 132 kV overhead transmission line between the Malagarasi hydropower plant and the 400/132/33 kV Kidahwe substation in Kigoma. According to the African Development Bank, this project is one of Tanzania’s priorities under its 2nd 5-year development plan and will also advance the objectives of the country’s Vision 2025.
The financing approved by the Tanzanian government will also enable “4,250 grid connections in rural areas, providing reliable renewable energy to households, schools, clinics and small and medium enterprises in the Kigoma region,” explains the Abidjan, Ivory Coast -based financial institution. The plant will require a total investment of USD 144.14 million. The Tanzanian government will foot the bill with USD 4.14 million.
