Praia, Oct. 3, 2025 (Lusa) - Cabo Verde's government has announced that it has granted the Empresa de Produção de Electricidade (EPEC) a loan of 600 million escudos for investments and maintenance, after a month of blackouts with no solution in sight.

‘The company wants to invest in the maintenance of its power stations and strengthen its treasury,’ is the justification in a resolution published on Thursday in the Official Gazette, which comes into force today.

'EPEC has resorted to bank financing to support investment expenses and strengthen its treasury, for 600 million escudos (€5.4 million), to be contracted with Banco Caboverdiano de Negócios (BCN) through the issue of the state's guarantee as security for the respective operation,' reads the document.

The overall term of the operation is 88 months, which includes a maximum disbursement period of four months and an amortisation period of 84 months, according to the financial plan approved by the creditor bank.

The Minister of Energy, Alexandre Monteiro, apologised at a press conference a week ago for the energy crisis affecting Cabo Verde's capital and the entire island of Santiago, which has been ongoing since 1 September due to unresolved faults.

Without committing to deadlines for resolving the problem, he announced the launch of an investigation to understand how the current state of disruption had arisen.

In a statement posted on social media, the group of state-owned electricity companies stated that cuts would continue. It referred to the arrival in the country of rented generators, without providing any specific dates.

Marcos Rodrigues, president of the Sotavento Chamber of Commerce (CCS), Cabo Verde's main business organisation, told Lusa that the lack of energy in the capital, Praia, since the beginning of the month, is ‘brutally affecting the economy’ and called for an urgent solution.

LFO/ADB // ADB.

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