Member States of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will begin cross-border sales and distribution of electricity among themselves in 2020, the regional body announced on Tuesday.
This was announced in Abuja by the Chairman, Regulatory Council of the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA), Honoré Bogler.
After swearing in the three-man Regional Regulatory Council, Mr Bogler spoke to the ECOWAS Secretariat.
He said the challenge facing the region was insufficient funding for the enormous infrastructure investments needed in the region.
The chairman said his council would reposition the sub-region’s energy industry.
“No country in the sub-region has the necessary funding to get electricity to every home in every country.
“That is why the Heads of States and government decided to create a market power pool so that all the potentialities we have in the region, in terms oil, gas, sun, wind – could be harnessed for the benefit of the people.
“The only limitation we fàce to harness these potentialities has been lacking of funds to get these resources working for the population,” Mr Bogler said.
According to him, the Heads of State and Government decided to pool all these potentialities so that the sub-region’s vast population would be an attraction for investors as soon as the investors realized that the vast population would use the electricity that would be generated.
Mr Bogler ensured that the region’s individuals would not be left to the operators ‘ mercy, especially on the problem of tariffs, which he said would be a regulatory council priority.
ERERA’s mandate, he sàid, is to establish the connection between all interest groups, to monitor the efficient functioning of the electricity market, by arbitrating on any conflict resulting from the operators ‘ agreement.
“The aim is to have a power market in the region, working with commercial rules and regulations that will be sustainable.
“We think people will have the best price of electricity if we use the regional resources that are cheaper to feed our network. ERERA will monitor and supervise all these to get it running in an organized manner.
“By 2020, the region will be ready for the transmission of power from one country to the other.
“⁴Once that is achieved, we will go into the phase of the plan whereby all the countries in the region would have the opportunity of buying electricity from the market through the regional lines,” he said.
By implication, he said with the entry of the project’s actual business stage, all stakeholders must understand that there is a trans-border electricity trade regional regulator.
As a result, he said the different organizations must understand that there is someone who will function for everyone’s benefit ; one who will not behave for anyone’s sake.
“If we want electricity for all, we must invest in the sector. But, we all know that all the countries of the sub-region are going through electricity supply challenges.
“This means that we do not have enough electricity produced in the region. We do not also have the lines for transmission from one country to the other over the borders, even if we generate enough electricity.”
On the enormous investments needed to attract investors, he said the council was hopeful to take advantage of the region’s big market benefits because of the large population as investors want returns on their investments.
Haliru Dikko, a member of the regulatory committee, said he was also hopeful about the system, with regional political rulers determined to provide an enabling atmosphere for prospective investors and their investments.
Mr Dikko said that the political will was demonstrated by the rulers of all Western African nations through the necessary guarantees for investors ‘ investments to make them safe and secure.
“The investors who are coming also need the assurance that they would be given appropriate rights of what is expected of them to stay.
“It was for this reason that the West African sub-regional market was able to attract investments from the World Bank, African Development Bank and other multilateral and multi-national investing public,” he said.
