From darkness to light: Local bakeries, homes flourish under Benin’s new urban electricity project

Highlights

• The project is funded by the African Development Fund, the concessional window of the African Development Bank Group, which provided a $9.08 million loan and a $7.28 million grant, alongside a $17.79 million loan from the French Development Agency
• The Benin government contributed $3.68 million

By Admin

The bustling sound of dough kneading fills the air at Pierre Gbenou Tito Dossou’s bakery in Okoun-Sèmè, Benin, as the once energy-starved business now hums along smoothly.

Orders for bread, croissants, and chocolate pastries are met on time, a feat Dossou attributes to a newly stable power supply in his hometown.

Reflecting on the struggles for years without stable electricity, Dossou said: “I struggled with electricity shortages for over a decade.”

His fortunes changed last year (2023) when new pylons and a large transformer brought reliable electricity to his district.

The long walk to the improved life was not smooth for Dossou. He added: “Generators didn’t work, and I couldn’t connect to the grid because our area was too remote. I had to rely on weak power from neighboring connections.”

I felt like I won the lottery. The new infrastructure brought streetlights, safer streets, and individual electric meters. “Since then, our work has been seamless. And even burglars have reduced.

He is not alone to have faced the challenges of electricity shortages. Other residents like Moussa Moudachirou, who is in his early 30s, have also experienced a positive shift.

“Before, we had to borrow electricity from neighbors, but now we are connected to our own meter at home,” he says.

Now, with his own digital and economical meter, his family’s expenses have halved. “We now last three weeks on a 5,000 FCFA top-up card,” Moudachirou said.

The Dossou and Moudachirou families are some of the beneficiaries of Benin’s Sub-Transmission and Distribution System Restructuring and Extension Project, which aims to improve electricity access in the West African country.

The turning point project
Launched in 2018 and slated for completion in late 2025, the project is set to increase access to electricity across Benin’s major cities and secondary towns, such as Abomey, Bohicon and Lokossa.

In addition to expanding access, the project aims to improve the quality of the electricity supply and cut energy waste. In 2015, it was estimated that the Electricity Corporation of Benin’s networks were losing 23 percent of their energy.

For many like Mouniratou Tiamiou, who once endured frequent power cuts, life has vastly improved.

“Brownouts damaged our appliances, and burglars took advantage of the darkness. But since the project lit up the area, we have had no problems,” she says, thankful for the newfound security and stability the electricity project has brought to her home.

As Okoun-Seme’s businesses thrive and homes become more secure, the project may be a vital boost for Benin’s energy landscape.