Senegal’s national electricity company Senelec and a subsidiary of French construction firm Vinci have inked a $219.5mn deal to build electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure.

According to a statement, the project will be partially funded by French authorities. The three-year project will involve the construction of 1,350km of high-voltage and very-high-voltage overhead and underground transmission lines, in a bid to connect thousand of homes.

The project will also see the construction of eight very-high-voltage transformer stations.

The grid management system will be enhanced with the addition of an interface to remotely manage operations and detect defects in the overhead and underground power lines.

Local teams will receive training with support from Vinci Energies’s French and Moroccan subsidiaries, the report noted.

The project is part of a wider programme to expand Senegal’s transmission and distribution grid, with a view to strengthening the country’s energy capacity by 2026 and move towards universal access to electricity.