Swedfund invests €10 towards bioenergy

Swedfund has invested €10 million into Addax Bioenergy, a company based in Sierra Leone.

Swedfund’s investment, which Addax & Oryx is also a part of, will be the biggest private sector agriculture investment into the country and will be added to a total investment of €267 million.

The greenfield projects will include the construction of an ethanol refinery and a biomass power plant. For the ethanol, sugarcane plantations will be cultivated nearby and then the ethanol produced will be exported to Europe and sold to the Sierra Leone domestic market.

The bioenergy plant is to produce electricity for the ethanol refinery as well as supply 20% of the country’s electricity grid.

The developments are scheduled for completion by 2013 and a farmer development programme will be implemented as well, with the help of UN-FAO, to give 2,000 local farmers improved farming methods and the chance for higher incomes.

‘The Government of Sierra Leone has specifically cited agriculture as one of the engines for socioeconomic growth and development and it is a clear objective of the Government to attract large-scale foreign investments to the agricultural sector,’ says Björn Blomberg, MD at Swedfund.