ECOWAS relaunches regional off-grid electrification project

To increase access to electricity for households in ECOWAS states, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission yesterday relaunched the Regional Off-grid Electricity Access Project (ROGEAP).

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The Minister of Power Engr Abubakar Aliyu has stated that the total Primary Energy Consumption (TPEC) of Nigeria has largely been dominated by biomass majorly fuel wood up to 80% of TPEC.

“Today the ECOWAS Commission is relaunching ROGEP project under a new name “Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project (ROGEAP)”.

“The focus of the ROGEAP is to increase access to electricity for households, commercial enterprises, public institutions and for productive uses, through stand-alone solar photovoltaic systems, in West Africa and four countries of the Sahel regions,” He said.

The minister said one of the first activities of the project is to organize a National Workshop in each of the ECOWAS member states of which Nigeria is one.

he further more noted that it is a well-known fact that sustainable development can only be achieved on the bedrock of adequate energy supply.

According to him, the economic wellbeing and standard of living of a nation is assessed by its access to modern and clean energy services.

He added that provision of access to electricity to remote and rural areas by conventional means happens at high cost due to several factors including the costs of energy resource, transportation, generation and distribution infrastructures and operation and maintenance.

The minister noted that however, renewable energy is locally available and can be used for heating purposes and supply of electricity; it helps to reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels, thereby enhancing national energy security, reducing the oil import bills, and reducing poverty.

He explained that “this project, ROGEAP, has been designed to provide all these solutions to improve the living conditions of our populace.

The minister noted that the Ministry had collaborated with ECOWAS Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) which is an agency of the Commission since 2017 on implementation of the Regional Off-Grid Electrification Project (ROGEP) project.

He said ROGEP as conceived entailed the development of Solar Home Systems (SHS) to rural areas by providing developers with soft loans funded by the World Bank.

He disclosed that the loans were to be issued by World Bank through intermediary banks and the interest to be borne by the project developers.

Aliyu said government was required to guarantee for payment of energy provided in essential sectors such as Public Health Centers and Public Schools only.

He recalled that the following milestones were achieved on the ROGEP Project.

He added that 60 sites were visited from which 15 were selected for implementation.

The minister also said a methodology for the electrification of schools and health centers was adopted and a market assessment was carried out by a consortium appointed by ECREEE to support decisions making for ROGEP implementation.

MTO/The standards