Meridiam reaches financial closing of Nouakchott port in Mauritania

The new terminal will have an initial handling capacity of 250,000 TEUs(1) (with a potential extension for a maximum capacity of 600,000 TEUs).

The investment sets the ground of a furthered partnership with the Olam group and its affiliate ARISE in the region, which is also the partner of Meridiam in Owendo Mineral Port in Gabon.

The Project will directly contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and especially Goal #9 (build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization), Goal #8 (promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth), Goal#14 (sustainably use the oceans) and Goal#17 (implement a partnership for sustainable development of port activities with the local authorities).

In Africa, Meridiam has already financed and developed 14 major projects amounting to more than EUR 3 billion, including:

• 4 solar power plants in Senegal for a total of 140 MWp. Two of them are part of the Scaling Solar initiative, jointly led by the Senegalese authorities and the International Finance Corporation (IFC, a member of the World Bank Group) in Senegal. These projects offer some of the lowest tariffs in Africa (€4 cts/kWh) and address the challenges of local populations’ access to clean and low-cost electricity.
• The Tulu Moye geothermal power plant. With a final capacity of 500 MW, it is the first Independent Power Producer (IPP) in Ethiopia.
• The mineral port of Owendo in Gabon and the container port of Nouakchott in Mauritania, two strategic projects aimed at diversifying national economies and massively developing logistics capacities.
• The Biokala biomass power plant in Cote d’Ivoire, the first biomass power plant in Sub-Saharan Africa. A true source of circular and inclusive economy, this project creates 1300 jobs and saves 178,000 tons of CO2 per year.
• The rehabilitation and extension work of Madagascar’s two main airports, which will increase passenger capacity and local economic development by 50%.
• NEoT Offgrid Africa (NOA), a joint venture launched in 2017 by Meridiam, EDF and Mitsubishi Corporation dedicated to the development of distributed energy projects in Africa (including solar home installations and mini grids).
• The construction and operation for 30 years of a highway linking Nairobi and Mau Summit to Kenya, an essential road axis for freight transport.

(1) TEU = Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit. It is the unit of the capacity of a container ship, a container terminal and the statistics of the container transit in a port.