Cenpower Project sweeps four Int’l awards

Cenpower‘s 350MW independent power plant, which is currently under construction at Kpone, near Tema, has been awarded the Best Infrastructure Project and two Best Power Deals of the Year.

It has also annexed Africa’s Power Deal of the Year by four prestigious international institutions.

The African Banker Awards selected the Cenpower project, out of five shortlisted nominations, as the “African Banker’s 2015 Infrastructure Deal of the Year” through its lead project developer and largest equity investor, the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC).

The AFC has a 32 per cent equity ownership in the Cenpower project, which comprises the 350MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine plant, a 161kV power substation as well as fuel delivery, treatment and storage facilities and Working Capital funding for fuel.

The African Banker Awards is backed by the African Banker magazine, a subsidiary of the IC Publications, and is under the patronage of the African Development Bank.

The 2015 African Banker Infrastructure Deal of the Year Award comes on the heels of another award by the EMEA Finance magazine, which adjudged Cenpower’s project as the “Best Power Deal in EMEA” for its Project Finance Awards 2014.

The Johannesburg-based African Investor (AI) Group announced Cenpower’s fourth award, out of 10 nominations, citing the company’s project as “AI Best Power Deal of the Year 2015”.

The Africa Investor Awards are unique pan-African business and capital market investment awards that recognise and reward the achievements of the private sector across wide-ranging sectors and disciplines.

“We are elated and yet humbled by all the international awards that our project has attracted. It has taken years to arrange financing and the right partners for the project, which would hopefully be a blueprint for future power projects in Africa,” said Chief Executive Officer of Cenpower Generation Company Limited, Mr Theo. Sackey.

All four awards come after the London-based Thomson Reuters PFI Awards in February 2015 internationally recognised the Cenpower project as “Africa’s Power Deal of the Year 2014”.

The PFI Awards scheme is the financial industry component of the Global Thomson Reuters Awards for Excellence and has for close to a decade rewarded corporate and individual success in the financial industry on the basis of their demonstration of outstanding performance and commitment.

“These awards are acknowledgements of the hard work, commitment and detailed planning amongst all the project’s partners that enabled us to successfully harness about $ 900million for work to commence on the project. We appreciate the honours conferred on us, which should further energise us to ensure the project is completed within the scheduled timelines,” said Cenpower Generation Company Limited’s Board Chairman, Mr Samuel Nana Brew-Butler.

South African-based engineering firm Group Five, the main project contractor, is steadily progressing with work on the plant, which is scheduled for completion by the 4th Quarter of 2017.