Yemisi Izuora/Ijeoma Agudosi
A consortium of development agencies made up of the World Bank, African Development Bank, European Investment Bank and German Export Bank have agreed to provide €329 million ($374.43 million) over 25 years for the West Africa Power Pool, (WAPP).
The project involves developing additional power generation capacity and building more transmission lines across the region.
West Africa reportedly produces 10,000 megawatts of electricity and had 4,000 km of transmission lines, but needed 26,000 megawatts of generation capacity and 16,000 km of connection lines to plug the power deficit.
The European Union has also provided €30 million to help set up an information and coordination centre that would supervise the electricity market based in Benin.
The West Africa’s regional body has agreed to pool its resources to establish a viable electricity market to end the blackouts that have blighted its 15 member states for decades.
The regions heads of states who gathered for a meeting of the Economic Community of West African States specifically agreed to develop a regional electricity market almost two decades after the plan was conceived.
Etienne Bailly, project director at Transco CLSG, told Reuters at a power conference in Lagos that the Transco CLSG that was set up by West African Power Pool (WAPP) will develop a 1,300 km (807 miles) interconnection line across Ivory Coast, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
“We have developed a master plan to address our energy deficit by creating a regional electricity market. In the next 10 years West Africa will have enough power plants, will have enough interconnection facilities,” he said.
Nigeria, in search of solution to its energy crises broke up its monopoly on power generation and distribution by privatising the sector two years ago, in the hope that it would attract foreign investors.