It is the department of Plateau, more precisely Illoulofin, in the municipality of Pobè, which will house the very first photovoltaic solar power plant in Benin, with a capacity of 25 Megawatts. This project, which is a component of the DEFISSOL project, is financed by the European Union, the French Development Agency (AFD) and the SBEE. The launching ceremony, chaired by the Minister of Energy, took place in the presence of the President of the National Assembly, Louis Vlavonou, and the technical and financial partners. According to the Project Coordinator, Ninon Ahoudjinou, the 25 Megawatt Photovoltaic Solar Power Plant which will be erected in Illoulofin will be built on a 96 ha area belonging to SBEE. It is composed of a solar field made up of photovoltaic panels using crystalline silicon technology. They will be framed and mounted on fixed structures with 6 transformer stations and a global underground network.

There will also be at the Onigbolo source station, a 20 KV/161 KV step-up transformer with a power of 50 MVA. At a total cost of 12.7 billion FCFA, the construction works of this Solar Photovoltaic Plant will be carried out by the EIFFAGE RMT Consortium for a contractual period of 15 months. The EIFFAGE RMT Consortium, selected after an international call for tenders, will be responsible for the detailed design, construction, operation and maintenance of the Plant during the first three years of operation. Environmentally and socially, people affected by the project will be compensated. To this end, measures to restore livelihoods and the construction of community infrastructure are planned. The Minister of Energy, Dona Jean-Claude Houssou, informed the people that this plant, as soon as it is built, will have a production cost of 34 FCFA/KWh. This cost turns out to be the lowest of all existing production sources on

the territory, hence its great importance in the energy mix. As a prelude to the launch of work on this plant, the Minister presided over the signing ceremony of international agreements to ensure greater equality between the sexes in development actions and adopted a national gender promotion policy whose action has already expired. In 2018, a group of women and men came up with the idea of setting up a consultation framework on gender and social inclusion issues in connection with the energy sector. This project has reached cruising speed thanks to Minister Dona Jean-Claude Houssou. An order was issued on December 26, 2018 establishing the National Gender and Social Inclusion Consultation Framework in the energy sector. On May 21, 2019, the Gender Development Unit was set up at the Ministry of Energy. For Minister Dona Jean-Claude Houssou,

these institutional and operational actions show that his ministry is convinced of the added value of taking gender and social inclusion into account in the sector and is determined to go very far so that no one is left behind in the sector. access to energy in Benin. "The National Gender and Social Inclusion Consultation Framework in the energy sector will lead, in synergy with all the other actors, concrete actions to highlight the consideration of gender and social inclusion concerns in the energy sector. energy in Benin", declared the Minister. He then hoped that the consultation framework would contribute effectively to improving access to energy for everyone, including the underprivileged, with a view to reducing gender inequality.