Ministers in charge of Energy from Six Member States of ECOWAS (Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Mali and Sierra Leone), Experts and the World Bank met in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire to collaborate and adopt a policy on the Securitisation of Payments Related to Cross-Border Power Trade in West Africa. In order to cope with the low access of West African population to electricity, which remains one of the major challenges of the region, ECOWAS Member States have decided to focus on pooling efforts through the development of an integrated electricity market. Mr. Cheick Fantamady Kante, the Country Director of the World Bank in Côte d’Ivoire, congratulated ECOWAS Member States for the ability to generate excess electricity in the region; especially Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria. He stressed that exchange of this surplus energy among Member States will be beneficial to the whole region. Highlighting that, “one of the major setbacks for socio-economic development and poverty reduction in the ECOWAS Region remains the insufficient supply and poor access to electricity by the populations despite the enormous potentials”.

Source: GNN Liberia February 06, 2020 08:39 UTC