Korhogo’s 66MW solar plant was funded without a euro of foreign capital
The Africa Finance Corporation disbursed €43 million in April under the Poro Power Green Bond, part of a €65 million dual-currency facility in euros and CFA francs. It was the first project finance green bond issued in Côte d’Ivoire or anywhere in the West African Economic and Monetary Union, and every institution behind it was African.
Every institution that funded the Poro Power Green Bond was African, in a country where long-term infrastructure finance has historically been raised abroad.
The Africa Finance Corporation reached financial close in April and disbursed €43 million of a €65 million facility structured in euros and CFA francs, acting as lead underwriter and co-arranger on what was the first project finance green bond issued in Côte d’Ivoire and the first of its kind across the West African Economic and Monetary Union.
Structuring part of the debt in CFA francs is the mechanism that matters, because a plant selling power in local currency then carries a share of its borrowing in the same currency, which removes the exposure that has sat between West African solar projects and the institutions able to lend against them.
The money builds 66MW at Korhogo in the northern Poro region, developed by Poro Power 1 SA, a special purpose company led by the Ivorian group PFO Africa. AFC expects the plant to be the largest in the country when it reaches operation in 2027, supplying more than 100,000 households and avoiding over 72,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, against a national target of 45% renewables in the electricity mix by 2030.
Samaila Zubairu, AFC’s President and Chief Executive, described the structure as a homegrown financing model that can be replicated across the continent rather than a single transaction. Jean-Marc Aie, Chairman and Chief Executive of Poro Power 1, called the issuance a historic milestone for Côte d’Ivoire and the wider WAEMU region.
Similar instruments have appeared elsewhere in the months since. Copperbelt Energy Corporation energised the 136MW Itimpi II plant at Kitwe in May, funded entirely from its own $200 million green bond at a project cost of $125.8 million and with no sovereign guarantee behind the paper. Nigeria’s Debt Management Office listed a N47.335bn sovereign green bond at 18.95% on the NGX and FMDQ in the same month, the third it has issued for the Federal Government.
Construction at Korhogo is the next milestone, and AFC has not announced a second transaction under the model since April.
Photo Credit: The Africa Finance Corporation
