WAPP Secures $525m For Electricity Network

The West African Power Pool (WAPP) has secured about $525,580,926.71 financial reprieve from various donor agencies to advance its plan to build a credible electricity interconnection network amongst its member States.

Secretary General of WAPP, Mr. Amadou Diallo, disclosed at the closing session of the Seventh WAPP General Assembly in Abuja that the funds which came in €323 million ($414,580,926.71) and $111million were received from various donors.

These, he said, include the World Bank, African Development Bank (AFDB) Group. European Development Bank, European Investment Bank, French Development Agency and Kreditanstalt FurWiederaufbau (KFW), a German government-owned development bank that is based in Frankfurt.

Diallo explained that the fund would be employed in transmission interconnection projects for the Cote d’Ivoire-Liberia-Sierra Leone-Guinea (CLSG)transmission corridor and Bolgatanga (Ghana)-Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) corridor, adding that funding for several other projects slated to be taken up by WAPP have also received firm interest from its technical and financial partners.

WAPP, which is a cooperation of national electricity companies under the auspices of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), was established to work towards a reliable power grid for the region and a common market for electricity. The WAPP had said it would need $26 billion over the next decade to advance the region’s power generation and transmission infrastructure and as well as attain set targets in the sector.

In his remarks, Diallo disclosed that the regional electricity framework has also developed uniform market model and rules of operation for adoption by its executive board; this, he noted, would advance its goal to attain a unified electricity market.