Angola is seeking to increase access to electricity among its population.

France and the World Bank have disbursed 344 million euros to help connect the provinces of Benguela, Huambo, Huila, and Luanda to the national grid.

The southern African country is looking to create a 60% electricity access rate by 2025.

The beneficiaries of the project include households, industries, businesses, and small to medium-sized enterprises in Angola, with the aim of increasing access to cheaper, more reliable, and sustainable electricity.

Constraints in the supply of electricity and piped water are often pointed out by private investors as the main barriers to Angola's industrialization goals.

"Currently in Angola, only one-third of the population has access to electricity under good conditions. The objective is, firstly, the modernization and extension of the electricity network in the four biggest provinces of Angola, but also to work on improving the performance of the public companies in the sector, the three public companies in the production, transport, and distribution sector.

"We are going to create a project management unit at the Ministry of Water and Energy that will supervise the technical issues in the three public companies in the sector to ensure that the project progresses under good conditions and that the financial means are well used," said Louis Antoine Souchet, head of the French Development Agency in Angola.

Under the plan, the government will create three separate agencies responsible for generation, transmission, and distribution. The move is aimed at eliminating waste and achieving efficiency.

The transmission lines are expected to move from the current 2850 kilometers to 15,600 kilometers by 2025 on lines of 60 kilovolts, 220 kilovolts, and 400 kilovolts.

Paris is also supporting Luanda to transform its rural areas by funding projects delivering piped water to small towns. Angola is urbanizing fast but its towns are not properly planned and lack social amenities.

In addition to the energy sector, French cooperation supports projects in Angola linked to rural development and the extension of the urban water network that have already benefited approximately 900,000 inhabitants of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.