While the price of electricity and bills have recently climbed, the Ivorian government wants to be reassuring.
Indeed, according to her, with 87 FCFA per kilowatt hour on average, the country indeed has the most advantageous electricity rates in the UEMOA area.
This is the argument brandished Thursday by the Minister of Mines, Mamadou Sangafowa-Coulibaly, to counter the criticism.
In Benin, Niger and Togo, the kWh easily exceeds 100 FCFA. Price levels up to 50% higher than those practiced in Ivory Coast, insisted the member of the Ouattara government.
A feat made possible by the heavy investments made in recent years in the sector.
Since 2011, more than 1,700 billion FCFA have been injected into the production, transport and distribution of electricity, with strong support from the private sector.
These are efforts that have made it possible to massively increase access to energy throughout the country.
The coverage rate has thus increased from 33 to 88% in just over a decade, with 7,500 localities newly connected to the precious network. A spectacular leap, even if the objective of 100% electrification is still slow to materialize.
Another marker of this virtuous dynamic, the quality of service has significantly improved with a reduction in outages of 40% in 12 years. Enough to place Côte d’Ivoire among the good West African students in this area.
But there is no shortage of challenges. Demand is exploding under the effect of galloping demographics, calling for colossal new investments by 2030. That is the price to pay for electricity costs to remain permanently down.
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