Companie Energie Electrique du Togo

concluded

In April of 1997, Mazard & Guerard, a French auditing firm, signed a one year managment contract to run the state owned vertically integrated power utility, Compangnie Energie Electrique du Togo (CEET). The golas of the management contract were: 1) termination of the current CEET management, 2) analysis of the existing situation, 3) interim management of CEET prior to its privatization. The value of the contract was estimated at euro 738,000 and was financed by the World Bank. The power sector in Togo was under the responsibility of the Ministry of Equipment, Transport, and Posts and Telecommunications (METPT). Since 1968, Benin and Togo created a joint company (the Communaute Electrique du Benin, CEB) which bought electricity in bulk from Ghana or Cote d'Ivoire (or at times from both) and resold it to the national power companies of Benin (the Societe Beninoise d'Electricite et d'Eau, SBEE) and Togo (the Companie Energie Electrique du Togo, CEET). CEET was principally a distribution company, but it also operated some power stations, including the Centrale Thermique de Lome (CTL). The contract was initally supposed to last just one year. However, delays in the privatization process resulted in the contract lasting until December of 2000. Elyo, a subsidiary of France’s Lyonnaise des Eaux (later renamed Suez), won the international tender for CEET by offering the highest evaluated bid (US$31.7 million). Elyo established Togo Electricite to implement the concession and took control of operations on December 1, 2000.