How did Côte d'Ivoire manage to achieve a national energy leap from 34 to 94% coverage?

The Director-General of the Ivorian Electricity Company (Compagnie Ivoirienne d'Electricité) of Côte d'Ivoire, Ahmadou Bakayoko, has said that the strong institutional frameworks that have been set up in the country over the last decade have contributed to the economy's energy leap from 34% to 94%.

He added that with the collective work of all players directly in the industry as well as indirectly, the country was able to work around getting to this point.

Several banks in the West African country including Standard Chartered and the National Investment Bank have recently decided to go digital.

According to africanews.com, to achieve its energy revolution, Côte d'Ivoire chose to privatize this sector in 1993.

More than 25 years later, the country has one of the best production capacities in Africa and aims to cover 99% of its population by 2035 and produce 42% of renewable energy.

Speaking on how this came to be during an interview on the channel, Ahmadou Bakayoko stressed how important it was for them to stay the course to attain such heights in the energy sector.

"In my opinion, there are two main reasons for this performance over the last 10 years. The first is that we have an institutional framework with a rather balanced distribution of actors between a state company called Côte d'Ivoire Energie -- which is in charge of investment in the network, and an important place is given to the private sector with the Compagnie Ivoirienne d'Électricité in charge of operating the network.

"Côte d'Ivoire Energie has set up a rural electrification programme and thanks to this programme we have gone from 2,000 localities to just over 6,000 localities at a rate of 2,000 per year. We have set up an access programme at the level of the EC in consultation with you -- which allows you to start accessing electricity from just 1000 francs, and then the person will pay for it over several years through deductions," he explained.

He also responded to the question on how the rate of banking can be raised among the youth in Côte d'Ivoire - which is still dominated by formal businesses and their employees.

He explained that innovations such as self-banking and other online banking options are the surest way.

"This is the bet that some banks such as Standard Chartered and Bni have made, by developing Self Banking, the possibility of opening an account directly online and reducing traditional costs. Except that this digital makeover requires more security," he said.