Nigeria Amongst Best in Region for Electricity Access

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) have made public their findings on access to electricity in West Africa.

Executive Director of ECREEE, Mahama Kappiah, announced during a presentation in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, that five West African countries topped the rankings of energy access in the ECOWAS region.

Cape Verde, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria and Côte D’Ivoire were leading in the region owing to the high number of their populations with access to electricity.

At the bottom of the list were the Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Togo.

Mr Kappiah said that just 42% of people living in the ECOWAS region had access to electricity, but when you look at those living in rural communities, that figure goes down to just 8%.

That equates to around 175 million people without electricity in West Africa.

The ECREE Executive Director was speaking at an event for the Regional Off-Grid Electrification Project (ROGEP).

The project is aiming to bring electricity into the homes of an additional 1.7 million people through stand-alone solar systems.

“The next phase of ROGEP under ECREE leadership is Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal, which are targeted because [these] countries are major providers of candidates for emigration”, he said.

“The status of readiness of these countries to host the proposed activities is acceptable, given the political institution and technological environment.

“The implementation will create one million jobs, self-employment for youths in the region, enhance various agriculture value chains as fundamental of the West African economy”, Kappiah said.

ECREE’s mission is to sustain development and cooperation in West Africa and the Sahel, specifically through the provision of efficient, reliable and competitive energy sources to member states.