West African countries urged to take advantage of energy potential

Countries in the West Africa sub-region have been advised to exploit the huge energy potentials in the region to industrialise their economies.

The advice was given by the Speaker of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, Honourable Sidie Mohamed Tunis, during the ongoing “Delocalised Meeting of ECOWAS Parliament Joint Committees on Energy, Mines, Industry, Private Sector and Environment,” which is holding in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire

Tunis said that West Africa is sitting on top of 17 billion tons of proven oil reserves, which should not be made to mean anything.

He added that the region is also blessed with 25,000 megawatts of hydraulic power potential in five countries including Nigeria and 5.2 billion metric tons of proven natural gas reserves, which is about 30 per cent of the reserves of Africa.

The speaker, however, lamented that only 52 per cent of people living in West Africa have access to electricity despite all these enviable resources.

Tunis stated that “the energy sector in the region is beset by a myriad of challenges, which include poor governance and weak capacity for planning and implementation.

“Another challenge is the uneven distribution of the energy resources of the region. Nigeria alone sits on top of more than 90 per cent of oil resources here.”

He, however, said that it has not been all gloom and doom for the region, as it has come up with a plan for regional power generation and transmission between 2019-2033.

He noted that the implementation of the road map for this energy mix, which is projected to cost over $36 billion, has commenced.

He explained that it would have 28 transmission projects covering over 22 thousand kilometres. Under the plan, 47 power projects will be built with a total capacity of over fifteen giga watts at an estimated cost of over $25 billion.