Geometric Power seals $514mn deal at Africa Investment Forum
Businessday
2 hours ago
Geometric Power seals $514mn deal at Africa Investment Forum
The 188-megawatt Geometric Power plant in the Osisioma Industrial Layout in Aba, Abia State has secured a $514million investment deal at the Africa Investment Forum, one of the million-dollar deals announced at the forum.


About ten different companies closed deals worth $4.22 billion at the Africa Investment Forum, organised by African Development Bank and seven other international development banks.

Since it was launched in 2018, the Africa Investment Forum has mobilised nearly $143 billion in investment interests.

Africa Investment Forum aims to attract capital to bankable projects in Africa’s critical sectors. Some of the other deals sealed at the event include Kampala- Jinja Expressway PPP($1.543 billion), Canal Sugar Project with a value of $973 million, IHS Affordable Green Housing Development Fund with $150 million and GE Paper Machine & Wastepaper Collection Sites ($250 million).


Others are the Rwanda Innovation Fund with $150 million, SPARK+ Africa (Clean Cooking) Fund with a value of $70 million, Tulu Moye Geothermal Power Project with a value of $233 million, CIAF Leasing with a value of $90 million and ARCH Africa Renewable Power Fund at $250 million value.

These deals were announced at the Africa Investment Forum, Market Days 2023 at the Palace Congress, Marrakech with the theme: ‘Unlocking Africa’s Value Chain’ from November 8 to November 10.

The Geometric deal would help the company meet its plan to begin power generation in Aba.

Barth Nnaji, the company’s founder had said in July that the company was starting operations by October with one of its four General Electric brand turbines, the second is supposed to come on stream once the performance of the first turbine is declared satisfactory by the team of engineers led by KSE Energy of Turkey and Engineer Ben Caven, a former executive director of the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) reputed to be the only person to have run the generation, engineering and transmission divisions of the state-owned utility.


“The generation of electicity from the Geometric Power plant will be a game changer in the socioeconomic development of not just Aba city but nine out of the 17 local government areas in Abia State serviced by Aba Power, a member of Geometric group”, Nnaji said during First African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Market Opportunities Conference which held at the Technology Incubation Centre in Aba, organised by the Continental Export Import (CONEX) Ltd.

Nnaji said the company had completed building four brand new power substations and refurbishing three substations inherited from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), in addition to providing thousands of kilometres of cables and wires, as well as world-class tubular poles available in only highly industrialised cities such as Tokyo in Japan and San Francisco in California.

“All that remains now is to provide fuel or gas to the Geometric Power plant through the 27-kilometre gas pipeline from Owaza in Ukwa West LGA in Abia State to the Osisioma Industrial Layout on the Aba outskirts.


This may have motivated the quest for new financing from the Africa Investment Forum, a multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary platform that advances projects to bankable stages, raises capital, and accelerates deals to financial closure.

The forum’s vision is to channel capital towards critical sectors to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the African Development Bank’s High 5s, and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

Africa Investment Forum’s centerpiece is the annual three-day Market Days event, which brings together thousands of global investors, heads of development finance institutions, and business and government leaders to advance critical investment transactions to closure.