Burkina Faso to Sign Nuclear Power Deal with Russia
Burkina Faso and Russia are scheduled to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the construction of a nuclear power plant in the West African Nation, according to the state-run Aib news agency.
The agreement will be a culmination of talks the Burkinabe military ruler, Captain Ibrahim Traore, had with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July, during the Russia-Africa summit in Moscow.
The report said the MOU will be signed between Rosatom, the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency, and the Burkinabe Ministry of Energy, on the sidelines of Russian energy week 2023.
About 20% of Burkina Faso’s population have access to electricity – one of the lowest rates in the world, according to the International Energy Atomic Agency (IEA).
The new deal with Russia is a culmination of talks the Burkinabe military ruler, Capt Ibrahim Traore, had with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July during the Russia-Africa summit in Moscow.
Capt Traore requested President Putin’s support in setting up a nuclear power plant in Burkina Faso, which he said would help meet the country’s energy demands and those of neighbouring countries.
“We have a critical need for energy, this is an important point for me because we need, if possible, to build a nuclear power station in Burkina Faso to produce electricity,” he was quoted as saying at the time.
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“Our position is rather strategic because we are in the heart of West Africa and we have an energy deficit in the sub-region.”
The deal is part of Burkina Faso’s target to achieve 95% electricity access for urban areas and 50% for rural areas by 2030.
Burkina Faso gets most of its electricity from biofuels like charcoal and wood while oil products account for one-third of the total energy supply, according to the International Energy Agency.
According to the US development agency USAid, Burkina Faso also has one of the highest electricity costs in Africa.
South Africa is currently the only African state that produces nuclear power commercially, but increasingly more nations on the continent are moving in the same direction.
Russia is helping Egypt to build a nuclear power plant at cost of $30bn (£24bn) following a deal signed by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and President Putin in 2017.
Russia also signed a deal to build power plants in Nigeria in the same year, but the project is yet to begin.
Kenya has also announced plans to build its first nuclear power plant by 2027, but it is still to decide on its international partner.
In September this year, Rwanda announced that it had opted for Canadian-German company Dual Fluid Energy to build a nuclear reactor by 2028.
The Rwandan government said the reactor will be instrumental to meet the central African country’s energy demands and “build resilience” as a result of climate change.
Although access to energy has increased in sub-Saharan Africa in recent years, it still remains low, with more than 50% of the region’s population still lacking access to electricity, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
