When West African countries established the Economic Community in the 1970s, they signed a large number of cooperation agreements in the fields of infrastructure construction, industrial economic development, national defense construction, and crime fighting. However, due to backward practical factors, many of the provisions have not been implemented at all today.

To the real point.

Among so many cooperation agreements, in addition to tariff reduction and exemption, regional road interconnection, visa exemption for citizens, etc., what Cao Mo values ​​​​most currently is the cooperation agreement on power infrastructure construction among countries in the Gulf of Guinea.

The Economic Community of West African States has a big goal, which is to build a unified power grid covering the entire West African region to provide cheap and sufficient electricity for the economic development, industrial production, commercial activities and residents' lives of the countries along the Gulf of Guinea.

However, West African countries have only taken a small step towards this ambitious goal.

Even now, even Draculamore, the economic capital of Kanem, and the surrounding areas have not yet been able to connect the transmission grid.

The power interconnection between the Lonta area and Draculamo was realized step by step during the development process of Cornero Energy.

However, unlike the super transmission grid, which can easily range from thousands to tens of thousands of kilometers, the Benin capital of Bodonov and the core port city of Cotonou are only 120 to 150 kilometers away from Draculamo.

The cost of building a high-voltage transmission network over this distance is not high.

However, whether it is Decuramo or Porto No-Cotonou, the power supply in the region is extremely scarce. Of course, there is no need to invest in the construction of an additional transmission line to connect the two regional power grids.

In the early development process of Cornero Energy, it promoted the integration of the Lonta area and the Draculamo grid. The next goal is to connect the Oguta-Bodonov-Cotonou transmission grid in Benin to the north.

Prior to this, as Ibogu Mining developed gold resources in Oguta and Cornero Foods opened cocoa plantations in Oguta, Cornero Energy also simultaneously built three medium-sized hydropower stations in the steep valley south of Oguta.

, to ensure the power supply of Cornero Cement’s cement plant in the Benin port city of Cotonou, and then promote the construction of the Oguta-Lonta transmission network to initially realize power interconnection in the Benin and Canem coastal areas.

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Of course, the scale of this power interconnection will be very limited initially.

Even if the power supply capacity of Cornero Energy is taken into account, the power supply of both countries is in short supply. Without the capacity, they will not agree on how much power to export to the country.

Even Cornero Energy's power plants, power stations, and electricity within Kanem cannot be exported abroad at will. However, in compliance with Kanem's legal requirements, power supply capacity must be given priority to Lonta and Draculamo.

The reason why we should promote the construction of the Oguta-Lonta transmission network in the early stage is that the investment in such a simple high-voltage transmission line of 40 to 50 kilometers long is not high. At the same time, it can also open up the pattern for the subsequent development of Cornero Energy. When necessary,

It can also make emergency adjustments to the power supply between the two places.

Now that the situation has changed, Cao Mo needs to readjust his development strategy on this continent.

In order to cooperate with the gathering and rise of the descendants of colonists in the small country of Benin, and to penetrate deeper into the politics and economy of the small country of Benin, Cao Mo must not only promote the Oguta-Lonta high-voltage backbone transmission earlier but also with a higher standard.

After acquiring the Cotonou state-owned power plant, Conero Energy will borrow huge sums of money to start the power plant expansion project as quickly as possible.

When the Cotonou Thermal Power Plant was completed and put into operation in the mid-1980s, it had four 60,000-kilowatt units, which mainly supplied power to the capital Bodonov and the port city of Cotonou and surrounding areas. However, in recent years, due to disrepair, the equipment has deteriorated.

It is aging. Only one or two units of the power plant are barely operating, and the power supply capacity is less than 100,000 kilowatts.

Currently, Benin's capital Bodonov and port city Cotonou can only maintain power supply for a maximum of six to eight hours a day, and there are even frequent power outages for multiple days in a row.

The power supply in other areas is even worse, severely restricting the development of local industry and agriculture.

Benin has been working hard to promote the expansion project of the Cotonou power plant in recent years, and it was originally planned to launch related projects at the end of last year.

However, affected by the economic crisis, Benin diverted hundreds of millions of dollars of funds raised elsewhere, and the entire expansion project was delayed indefinitely.

Benin currently relies on the three medium-sized hydropower stations built by Cornero Energy in Oguta to alleviate the burden of power supply in the capital area.

In fact, Conero Energy is building three medium-sized hydropower stations in the Oguta Mountains, mainly to ensure the power supply for the Cotonou Cement Plant that Conero Cement has renovated and expanded after acquiring it in southern Cotonou.

An agreement was signed with the National Electricity Group of Benin. After the completion of the three medium-sized hydropower stations, they will supply 200 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually to the Cotonou cement plant, which will have an annual production capacity of finished cement exceeding 2 million tons after expansion. A small amount of excess electricity will be supplied.

It will be fed into the regional power grid of Benin State Electricity Group in Bodonov-Cotonou.

In order to coordinate these matters, Brahm, who was the CEO of Cornero at this time, traveled to Benin several times this year to discuss this matter.

Previously, it was thought that the Benin National Electricity Group could open a separate transmission line for the Cotonou Cement Plant to ensure that the hydropower station in Oguta can provide stable power supply for cement production. Cornero Energy can even provide the necessary power for this transmission line.

Funds for renovation and upgrading.

All original plans have been overturned. Cornero Energy now not only wants to acquire the Cotoro Thermal Power Plant, but also immediately promotes the expansion project of the Cotoro Thermal Power Plant, and even moderately increases the scale of the expansion project.

Cao Mo's ultimate goal is to make full use of the high-quality coal resources in eastern Benin and build a large-scale thermal power generation base in Cotonou. In addition to ensuring the power supply in Cotonou-Bodonov, the core area of ​​Benin, it can also

Transmit electricity on a large scale to the Canemdegurama and Akwapeme areas.

Of course, the power grid in Benin, especially in the coastal area surrounding the capital, is in the hands of Benin’s privileged class.

One of the sweetest cakes, Cao Mo will not try to get his hands on it.

Cao Mo will even try his best to help some people to steadily increase their considerable profits. At the same time, he will build the Oguta-Lonta cross-border transmission network and the future cross-border transmission network in the Akva-Delison area from Cotonou to the north.

In terms of investment and construction, the original plan was changed and the Benin National Electricity Group was brought in.

Through a certain degree of benefit transfer, the cross-border backbone transmission network in the Gulf of Guinea should be dyed with the color of Benin's national will as much as possible, and it should be more deeply tied to the families of Benin's political leaders.

Plans are easy to change, but funds are difficult to raise.

Cao Mo has 600 million US dollars (gold) in his hand, which seems to be rich, but when it comes to infrastructure construction, his funds are far from enough.

After preliminary communication via satellite phone in his car, he decided to acquire the Cotonou Power Plant and the Parit Coal Mine in the east, and carry out reconstruction and expansion. It would take US$200 million to steadily increase the installed capacity of the Cotonou Power Plant to 400,000 kilowatts.

If you want to build a new thermal power plant with an installed capacity of over 1 million kilowatts in Cotonou, the investment will be 600 to 800 million US dollars.

The installed capacity of the Cotonou power plant must reach 1.2 million kilowatts to 1.5 million kilowatts in order to form a large-scale power transmission to Draculamo in the south and the capital of the Akwa Ring in the north.

Only after the Akva Ring Capital Péme region relies to a considerable extent on the power supply of the Cotonou thermal power plant can the cross-border power grid have substantial political influence on Akva.

Whether it is planning to inject capital into Conero Energy in the name of Tianyue Industrial, or directly borrow from Bank Atlantic, United Bank of Oman, or through the Chinese contractor to the Export-Import Bank of China in the name of Conero Energy, all

A fairly long review cycle is required.

In order to advance this matter as quickly as possible and negotiate an agreement with the Benin authorities, Cao Mo plans to first directly take out 200 million US dollars from Ibogo Mining and Cornero Cement, and allocate it to Cornero Energy in the form of loans, and put the matter into perspective.

Push it forward as quickly as possible.

Cornero Energy is headed by Brahm, and its management is composed of a group of elites of colonial descent. The subsequent headquarters can be moved to the port city of Cotonou in Benin, but including the employees of the Cotonou Thermal Power Plant, at most

It can gather hundreds to thousands of colonial management and skilled technicians, and its influence is relatively shallow and difficult to penetrate beyond the descendants of the colonists.

In order to more extensively enhance the influence of the descendants of colonists in Benin's entire society and even the political situation, Cao Mo also plans to transfer the Gulf of Guinea Shipping Company's Bay Area Shipping Business Center, chaired by Garon Targaryen, from Dracula Moor.

Transfer to Cotonou port.

Brahm, Garon Targaryen and Little Tubman can all be said to be the best among the descendants of the colonists, but they still cannot support the broad and far-reaching and direct penetration that the descendants of the colonists pursue in Benin.

influence deep within the political landscape of Benin.

In addition to supporting businesses founded by descendants of local colonists in Benin, attracting more descendants of colonizers to start businesses in Cotonou is also an urgent plan.

Cao Mo also did this job at Drake.

In Drake, Cao Mo not only employed a large number of workers of descendants of colonists in the development of the Wusan River copper and gold mine by Ibogu Mining, but also the Cornero Food Union subsidized families of descendants of colonists to open up small and medium-sized cocoa plantations.

Descendants of colonists with certain skills and management experience are encouraged as much as possible to set up companies in Drake to provide supporting services for the Usan River copper-gold mine and plantations.

Cao Mo thought of directly selecting a group of outstanding people from these people to set up branch companies in the Port of Cotonou. In the early stage, they could also provide supporting services for the development of Cornero Energy and the Gulf of Guinea Shipping Company in Cotonou, and increase the number of colonists.

The size of the descendant business owner group.

The social and political situation in Benin is relatively stable. After independence, there have been no particularly serious bloody conflicts between indigenous groups and descendants of colonizers. Social conflicts have eased. Benin has always had stricter restrictions on descendants of colonizers doing business, starting businesses, and owning private property.

Akwa, Kanem and other countries should be more relaxed.

Therefore, in Benin, there are a group of small and medium-sized business owners who are descendants of colonists who have survived.

It is a pity that Benin's resources are not as rich as Akwa and Kanem, and the market is not as big as Akwa and Kanem.

There is no strong support behind them, and they are more or less suppressed by the authorities. These small and medium-sized enterprises that the descendants of the colonists continue to operate in Benin are not very successful, but they are not unable to grow.

As a Chinese businessman, it was absolutely unrealistic for Cao Mo to directly win over the descendants of colonists in this land.

He can only cooperate with, support, and cultivate the descendants of colonists with outstanding vision to develop and grow, forming a truly powerful force that cannot be arbitrarily slaughtered by others. Only then can he broadly unite the descendants of colonists in countries along the Gulf of Guinea, and eventually become a natural force.

Joy in Africa's moats.

Cao Mo has always had such plans and ideas.

He is also gradually implementing it at Drake.

He just didn't expect that the enemy that appeared this time was more greedy and dangerous than he imagined.

He had to speed up the work and shift the focus of the plan from Drake to Cotonou, Benin.

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After Cao Mo and his party arrived at Auguta, they moved into the newly built manor of the Jidamu family in Auguta, and met little Tubman who arrived first.

Starlie was still staying in Akwa, keeping an eye on Ryan Fortis's every move in Akwa's capital, Peme Harbor. Her brother, Little Tubman, rushed back to Oguta from Drake a day in advance.

After the demise of the Guidam family, Tubman Jr. returned to Africa from England.

In the past two years, he has mainly stayed in Drake. As the executive director and senior vice president of Cornero Foods, he is responsible for uniting local families descended from colonists, funding their contracts, purchasing wasteland to cultivate family cocoa plantations, and cultivating as many family cocoa plantations as possible.

It solves the employment problem of more than 40,000 local descendants of colonists.

A large amount of money was invested, and a total of nearly 200 cocoa plantations ranging in size from 300 to 500 acres were developed, which could accommodate up to 7,000 to 8,000 hired workers, fundamentally alleviating the extremely difficult living conditions of the descendants of local colonists.

These plantations have passed their land reclamation stage, and the number of workers they need to hire has dropped sharply.

The first mine of Wusang River Copper and Gold Mine and a large number of supporting enterprises have been built one after another, just in time to take over the high-quality labor force that has become rich.

Not only did they re-support nearly two hundred small plantation owners in Drake, mainly families descended from colonists, but when they entered the fruit-bearing period, these plantations could also accommodate more local wealthy indigenous laborers.
To be continued...