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SIFCA, the agribusiness group controlled by Ivorian tycoon Jean-Louis Billon's family, has opened a 46-megawatt power plant in Ivory Coast with France's EDF and investment firm Meridiam, a project that cost more than 150 billion CFA francs ($256 million) and runs on waste from the group's palm oil plantations.
The Biovéa plant at Ayébo, near Aboisso in the southeast of the country, was inaugurated on Thursday, Nov. 5. It is Ivory Coast's first biomass power station and the largest in West Africa, and it will supply electricity to the national grid for about 1.7 million people.
EDF owns 40% of Biovéa Énergie, the company that built and runs the plant, Meridiam holds 36% and SIFCA 24%. Proparco, the private-sector arm of the French Development Agency, and the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund helped finance it.
The plant burns about 450,000 tons a year of palm oil residues, much of it supplied by Palmci, SIFCA's listed palm oil unit, along with waste bought from local growers. More than 12,000 farmers in the region are expected to earn extra income by selling their residues, and the plant will support more than 1,000 permanent direct and indirect jobs. It is designed to run for 25 years and to avoid about 4.5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions over that period.
A government push
Nialé Kaba, minister of state for foreign affairs, led the ceremony on behalf of Prime Minister Robert Beugré Mambé. She said the plant was "much more than a power station" and that agricultural waste was becoming "a real source of wealth."
Mamadou Sangafowa-Coulibaly, the minister of mines, petroleum and energy, said the plant would support the government's investment program. He announced two more biomass plants, one at Divo that will run on cocoa waste and one at Boundiali that will use cotton stalks. Ivory Coast wants renewable sources to supply 46.3% of its electricity by 2035.
Work on Biovéa began in July 2023, when the partners laid the foundation stone and set a target of starting operations by the end of 2025.
The Billon family
SIFCA, founded in 1964 by Pierre Billon, Jean-Louis Billon's father, is one of West Africa's largest agribusiness groups, with palm oil, natural rubber and sugar operations in five countries and more than 33,000 employees. The Billon family owns about 44% of the group through Parme Invest, and Singapore's Wilmar International Ltd. holds about 27%.
Jean-Louis Billon, a former trade minister, has stepped back from running the business to focus on politics and finished second in Ivory Coast's October 2025 presidential election. The family's assets were valued at 327 billion CFA francs ($558 million) in a 2023 ranking of the country's richest families, the highest in Ivory Coast.
Figures were converted at CFA586 to the dollar.
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