The Municipal Council of Sakar in Senegal has granted 300 hectares of land to Swedish renewable energy company Jord AB for the development of a large-scale biofuel project.
An additional 700 hectares is expected to be allocated in the coming month, indicating strong local support for sustainable energy development.
The project site is strategically located between the villages of Dassilame and Taiba-Bodiancounda, in the Sedhiou region of southern Senegal.
According to Souaibou Cisse, the Municipality Project Coordinator, the region faces several challenges, including inadequate farming tools, poor road infrastructure, and minimal support for local agricultural production.
“If this project can help in these areas, it will ease the burden on mothers, create jobs for our youth, and support the development of the entire municipality,” Cisse said.
“We’ve already made significant sacrifices and released land because we believe in this initiative.”
Jord AB, headquartered in Stockholm, specializes in producing solid biofuel and biochar from C4 grass.
The company, through its local subsidiary Jord Africa, plans to produce approximately 50,000 tonnes of solid biofuel annually on the allocated land.
The firm stated that the land had been unused for over 20 years, making it ideal for sustainable agricultural development without concerns about displacement of current land users.
Although the cost and scale of the project has yet to be determined, it aligns with Senegal’s renewable energy target of generating 40% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.
The development is also seen as a key step in transitioning Senegal’s transportation and energy sectors away from fossil fuels.
“We hope the project will give back to the community so that our municipality can grow and, in a few years, rank among the best in the region,” added Cisse.
Our investigation shows that this land allocation may be a direct outcome of Senegal’s recent appeal for funding from Swedfund, the Swedish development finance institution, to support clean energy initiatives.