Niger is on track to nearly double power production in the next six years, a senior official told Reuters on Monday, a development that could boost industry in one of the world’s poorest countries.

The government is in talks with three Chinese companies to develop a 200 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in the centre of the country by 2024, said Salifou Gado, a head of department head at Niger’s Energy Ministry, without giving the cost.

“It’s an integrative project that will allow us ... to create an interconnected network with Nigeria,” Gado said on the sidelines of a meeting of West African power producers.

The government also plans to open a 7 MW solar power plant by the end of the year, and another in 2020 with about 20 MW of capacity. The three projects in total would in six years add 227 MW of power to a grid that now supplies about 250 MW.

Niger is the world’s top uranium producer, but most of the arid West African country’s population live in deep poverty, lacking clean drinking water and reliable electricity.

The new power supply would help develop the mining sector and local factories, Gado said.

Gado said the projects were financed by the France’s development agency AFD, the African Development Bank, the World Bank and the West African Development Bank. (Reuters)