Volobe TA (DFC-2024-VOLOBETA)

Regions
  • Africa
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Countries
  • Madagascar
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Specific Location
Ivondro river, 30 km from Toamasina in eastern Madagascar
Whenever identified, the area within countries where the impacts of the investment may be experienced. Exact locations of projects may not be identified fully or at all in project documents. Please review updated project documents and community-led assessments.
Financial Institutions
  • US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
U
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Borrower
Compagnie Générale d’Hydroélectricité de Volobé (CGHV)
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Energy
  • Hydropower
  • Technical Cooperation
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Advisory Services
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 1.87 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Loan Amount (USD)
$ 1.87 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 3.75 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Bank Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ DFC website

Updated in EWS Jan 6, 2025

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

As stated in the project disclosure document, DFC will provide pre-investment Technical Assistance (TA) to CGHV. The objective of the TA is to develop the Upper Volobe Hydropower Plant for potential DFC debt financing over a period of approximately 18 months that will lead to the development, design, financing, construction, and maintenance of a 121.5 MW run-of-the-river hydroelectric power facility, under a 25-year concession agreement and PPA to be entered into with Jirama, Madagascar’s national power utility.

The project is located on the Ivondro river, 30 km from Toamasina in eastern Madagascar. The project will produce clean energy while meeting the energy needs of communities living between Toamasina and the Antananarivo Interconnected Power Grid.
DFC’s TA activities will fund a portion of the development budget with a view to reaching financial close consisting of technical studies, the execution of Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) amendments, conducting the procurement process and selection of the EPC contractor, and preparing and launching an insurance tender.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.
Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

As stated on the website of the Ministry of Energy and Hydrocarbons (translated with DeepL.com), CGHV (Compagnie Générale d'Hydroélectricité de Volobe) is a Malagasy company whose mission is to develop, build, operate and maintain the Volobe amont hydroelectric project in the Atsinanana region.

It is made up of a consortium of shareholder companies comprising SCATEC, Africa 50 and Axian Energie.

The Volobe amont hydroelectric scheme is being developed with the Malagasy government under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP). It is one of the priority projects defined in the Low Cost Development Plan (PDMC). It is a reliable response to Madagascar's emerging energy needs.

Private Actor 1 Private Actor 1 Role Private Actor 1 Sector Relation Private Actor 2 Private Actor 2 Role Private Actor 2 Sector
Africa50 Client Infrastructure contracts with Scatec ASA Client Energy
Axian Group Client Energy contracts with Africa50 Client Infrastructure
Axian Group Client Energy contracts with Scatec ASA Client Energy

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

No project contacts provided at the time of disclosure.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Unlike many other development finance institutions, DFC does not currently have an access to information policy.

Under the United States Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), DFC is obliged to respond to reasonably formulated requests for Agency records. However, DFC may apply exemptions from release to certain types of information and may charge fees in responding to requests. DFC has a designated FOIA officer who is trained in how to respond to requests and implement the law. You can learn more about filing a FOIA request at: https://www.dfc.gov/foia

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF THE UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION (DFC)

The Office of Accountability is an independent office that addresses complaints about environmental or social issues related to DFC-supported projects. The office provides communities an opportunity to have concerns independently reviewed and addressed. If you submit a complaint to the Office of Accountability, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a problem solving dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the DFC complied with its policies to prevent environmental, social, human rights, and labor harms.

You can find more information about the Office of Accountability at: https://www.dfc.gov/who-we-are/office-accountability

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How it works