Eranove: Water, Sanitation and Electricity Services in Africa

Interview with Marc Albérola, CEO of the Eranove Group

You are very active in Western Africa, notably in Ivory Coast, where you have four companies. What does Ivory Coast represent for your group, and what are the biggest projects your group is currently working on?

For us, Ivory Coast is the growth driver for Western Africa. Besides Nigeria, Ivory Coast, when healthy as it is at the moment, returns to how it was in the past, and that is a growth driver for other countries, which benefit from Ivory Coast. On the other hand, for us Ivory Coast is an important platform which will be further developed in terms of infrastructure to satisfy growth in the country, and by extension, growth in other African countries.

In the electrical sector, you have to know that Ivory Coast is interconnected to Ghana, Benin, Togo, Burkina, Mali, and through Mali to Senegal and Mauritania. The power grids are entirely interconnected, and Ivory Coast sells its surplus power to these countries. The State wants to make Ivory Coast into a power hub. So, in our industry, it is very important to be besides the State to accomplish this. We are ready to mobilise resources and financing for these infrastructures, but also for the management of these infrastructures, even if this is already mainly the case, through the structures which we have here (CIE, CIPREL, SODECI, AWALE).

Do you have any concrete plans to announce for the next three years?

In Ivory Coast, we have two training centres, one for water and one for electricity, which we want to turn into true centres of excellence for the water, electricity and sanitation sectors, to train and develop the professionalism of our collaborators, and also to meet the regional demand for training. In the future, when we go on to conquer these new markets, we will have in our midst a facility for training purposes, because we think that professionalism and expertise are the key of the profession, and that those skills have to be learnt both in the field and in specialised training centres with modern and efficient teaching tools.

The State wants to make Ivory Coast into a power hub. So, in our industry, it is very important to be besides the State to accomplish this. We are ready to mobilise resources and financing for these infrastructures, but also for the management of these infrastructures.

We have a number of agreements with various governments in our pipeline, to support them in the field of water and electricity. We have reached a level of performance, expertise and professionalism that allows us to conquer other markets. That is how we were selected after a call for tenders in D.R. Congo, for REGIDESO, the company in charge of public clean water services in Kinshasa, Lubumbashi and Matadi. We carried out a market study and identified a dozen projects, which we are in the process of instructing.

What impression do you want to give of the organisation’s management?

The Eranove Group will be a Pan-African platform, recognised for its specificities that take into account the local and cultural particularities of a country. The Group was established by myself and our President, Vincent le Guennou, with whom we form an extraordinary tandem. It’s his vision too, and it’s mainly because of him that this vision of a Pan-African platform has been established, with the future goal of becoming a Pan-African leader in the public water, sanitation and electricity services.