Aviation Infrastructure PPP

Meridiam signs $250m Concession Agreement for Burkina Faso’s Donsin-Ouagadougou Airport

Picture: Meridiam

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Earlier today, Meridiam signed a 30-year concession agreement with the State of Burkina Faso for the conception, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of a new international airport 35km northeast of Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou.

The project is now progressing towards financing close. The engineering and construction works are expected to start at the end of 2022 and last for about 30 months.

Meridiam has partnered with Aéroport Marseille-Provence (AMP) as a technical partner under a technical assistance contract. AMP will also be a minority shareholder in the special purpose vehicle set up for the project.

The project is expected to cost about €220m (over $250m) and represents one of Bukina Faso’s biggest public-private partnership (PPP) initiatives. Once completed, the new Donsin international airport will replace the current Ouagadougou-Taamsê International Airport built in the 1960s and located in the centre of Ouagadougou.

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Nigeria’s Sahara Group commits $1bn to LPG vessels and infrastructure in Africa

Nigerian energy infrastructure conglomerate, Sahara Group, has announced an investment of $1bn into Africa’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) value chain during the African Refiners and Distribution Association (ARDA) conference 2021 in South Africa this week. “Sahara, through its subsidiary, WAGL Energy Limited is already working towards investing $1 billion to ramp up its LPG fleet and terminal infrastructure over the next five years. In addition to the vessel fleet, Sahara is in the process of building over 120,000 metric tonnes of LPG storage in eleven countries,” he said. In October 2020, Sahara and Côte d’Ivoire’s national oil company PETROCI notably broke ground on a new 12,000 MT LPG storage terminal on the outskirts of Abidjan. The company has also earmarked additional such projects in Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia while considering additional investment elsewhere on the continent.

CDC partners DP World for $1.7bn Africa logistics investment platform

The UK’s development finance institution and impact investor CDC Group (CDC) is partnering with DP World of the UAE to invest into Africa’s trade and logistics infrastructure. The long-term partnership will see DP World investing a further $1bn into existing ports in Dakar (Senegal), Sokhna (Egypt) and Berbera (Somaliland). On its side, CDC is initially committing approximately $320 million and expects to invest a further $400 million over the next several years. The additional investment into Berbera aims to turn the port into a regional trading hub boosting economic growth in Somaliland and supporting the growth of Ethiopia by offering an alternative export and import route for the country. In West Africa, the expansion of the Dakar port will be adding capacity as other ports are increasingly being stretched and unable to serve the hinterland. “The port expansion will support trade with landlocked Mali and help Senegal become a hub of economic activity for the region,” CDC explained. The partnership is expected to create 138,000 jobs by investing in origin and destination ports, inland container depots, economic zones and broader logistics infrastructure.