The Ministry of Energy and Hydraulics organized on November 19 in Brazzaville, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the National Union of Economic Operators of Congo (UNOC), a technical working meeting focused on mobilizing financial and technical resources for the Rural Electrification Programme (PEZor).
This program is part of the national effort to accelerate universal access to electricity, particularly in our rural areas.
The meeting aimed to create a professional framework dedicated to mobilizing Chinese companies and institutions around the financing, technical expertise, and implementation of the PEzor project, in its pilot phase from 2026 to 2030.
Estimated at nearly 211 billion FCFA (approximately $373,432,980), the PEZor program was developed by the government in partnership with the UNDP, the implementing agency. It will be deployed through two components: a micro-hydropower program that has studied nineteen sites with capacities ranging from 31 kW to 5,000 kW, for the electrification of localities in ten districts of the country; and a program for photovoltaic solar power plants and the installation of streetlights in fifty-eight districts.
Host of this meeting, which was held both in person and virtually, the UNDP Resident Representative in Congo, Adama Dian Barry, reminded the Chinese partners, members of Nova, of the potential for co-investment in the implementation of this program. She indicated that the energy sector is a cross-cutting driver of economic and social development.
“We now consider energy to be the backbone of any national development policy for any structural economic investment strategy. In this context, accelerating access to electricity for all by 2030 is at the heart of the United Nations agenda, which, through Sustainable Development Goal 7, enshrines the promotion of renewable energies as a prerequisite and a lever for accelerating energy availability to the world’s population ,” she stressed.
The president of UNOC, Daniel Ovaga, called for the mobilization of funding and partnerships in support of the PEZor project, especially since access to electricity is one of the country’s major challenges, particularly in rural areas where the rate is less than 1%. This situation, he said, limits productivity, industrialization, agricultural processing, and rural development.
“This strategic program is structured around three axes. There is a bridge between the government, international investors and the local private sector. Facilitating public-private partnerships, essential for the development of energy infrastructure; facilitating and supporting foreign companies and institutions, particularly Chinese ones, in their processes and their integration into the corollary economic ecosystem ,” said Daniel Ovaga, welcoming the presence of Nova International, whose expertise in connecting parties and mobilizing private investors constitutes a major asset.
The president of the Chinese group Nova International, Christina Huying, noted that her organization, which represents approximately 2,500 chambers of commerce and over 100,000 businesses, has a presence in Cameroon, Iran, Uzbekistan, the Republic of Congo, and Côte d’Ivoire, within the framework of the “Belt and Road Initiative.” “We are here to find solutions, to see how to develop Congo-Brazzaville. We are here to listen to you, to work together to establish a win-win partnership ,” she stated.
According to the director of the office of the Minister of Energy and Hydraulics, Frédéric Manienz, this meeting is a link of connection between the mobilization of Chinese financial and technical resources whose legal basis of validity is found through global development and the implementation of PEZor, in the time frame of its pilot phase 2026-2030.
and specified that the call for Chinese financial and technical partners is a response to establish partnerships around objectives and actions aimed at the deployment of hybrid mini-hydraulic or solar grids.
