The second West Africa Forum for Clean Energy Financing (WAFCEF2) has awarded the top prize to the Ivoire Hydropower Energy project, a start-up driven by Etty Ekolan Alain, in Côte d’Ivoire.

WAFCEF2 is a joint partnership with ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) and the Climate Technology Initiative - Private Financing Advisory Network (CTI-PFAN).

The hydro project's blueprint looks to design, construct and operate a 44MW hydropower plant on the country’s Bandama River under a concession agreement signed with the government in December 2013, according to African Development Bank in a statement.

A week ago, the WAFCEF2 awards took place in Abidjan, where 10 entrepreneurs were given the opportunity to showcase their clean power project strategies to a panel of financiers and investors. The ten power projects were selected from Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal.

Their focus ranging from biofuels, biomass, biogas, hydropower, solar, and conversion of waste-to-energy, the Bank added in a statement. Alain told Esi-africa upon receiving the award: “I feel a lot of emotion for my project to have been selected winner of this award. I am proud of all the work done by my team.I worked in the energy sector for 25 years, and that made it possible for us to identify the gaps which our project will help to solve.”

Solomon Asamoah, African Development Bank’s Vice-President for Infrastructure, Private Sector and Regional Integration, commends the WAFCEF2 for all its work involved in growing the energy sector