Electricity: $26bn required to interconnect West African countries

The West African region requires about $26bn to interconnect the power systems of Nigeria and other countries, Secretary General, West African Power Protocol, Dr. Amadou Diallo, has said.

Diallo said this at the 7th Session of the General Assembly of the West African Power Pool, which opened in Abuja on Monday.

The vision of the WAPP Organisation is to integrate the national power system operations into a unified regional electricity market; with the expectation that such mechanism will, over the medium to long-term, assure the citizens of the Economic Community of West African States stable and reliable electricity supply at affordable costs.

This is expected to create a level playing field to facilitate balanced development of diverse energy resources of ECOWAS member states for their collective economic benefit, through long-term energy sector cooperation, unimpeded energy transit and increasing cross-border electricity trade.

Diallo, who highlighted some of the achievements recorded by the organisation over the years to include the connection and transmission of electricity to many West African members nations, expressed concern over the lack of funds to invest into the generation and effective connection of power to the remaining nations.

The Punch