On December 22, 2020, the government of Mali and the Phanes Energy group signed an agreement for approximately 69.8 billion CFA francs (i.e. 106.4 million euros) "excluding taxes and duties of customs” as part of the project to build a 93W photovoltaic solar power plant in the locality of Touna located in the central part of the country.

In his speech for the occasion, Malick Bencherechali, the secretary general of the Emirati group based in Dubai, said that this solar power plant will allow the company Energie du Mali SA (EDM.SA) to strengthen its electricity production offer at a reasonable cost. from clean, viable and cheaper energy, job creation during the construction and operational phases, economic and social initiatives for local communities in the Cercle Bla. And to add that this infrastructure will be operational in 2022 and will also make it possible to position Mali as one of the major players in the initiatives of change.

In addition, this project has already been the subject of the signing of an electricity purchase contract on November 25, 2020 in Bamako between Phanes Energy Mali-SA, a subsidiary of the Emirati group, and the public company EDM. The construction of the plant will take 18 months. Once powered up, the facility is expected to supply electricity to Mali's national power grid for 25 years.

“The advantage of the plant is that the Phanes group will do all the financing for the work. Mali is not going to poach money there as financing. After producing energy, it will be sold to Energie du Mali at a price of 55 FCFA per kW. Contrary to this, the energy produced using the group is sold to Energie du Mali at a price of approximately 200 FCFA per KW. The energy of Mali works but does not benefit. Our goal is to help the energy of Mali in order to satisfy the Malians in terms of energy”, declared Lamine Seydou Traoré, Malian Minister of Mines, Energy and Water.

There is no information about the terms of this partnership between the Malian state and the Phanes group. Contacted, the ministry's services declined to comment.