The Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Word Bank organised a meeting on the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Access Project, focused on the expansion of distribution networks from the high-voltage substations of the Gambia River Basin Development Organisation and Senegal River Basin Development Organisation.
The first phase of the project, financed to the tune of US$225m by the World Bank (51% credit, 49% grant) aims at expanding power grids and supporting cross-border electrification in Guinea Bissau, Mali, and The Gambia. It comprises the construction of 3,900 km of 33 kV MV lines, more than a thousand of 33 kV/400 V distribution substations, and approximately 3,700 km of 400 V LV lines, as well as the furniture of electrical equipments (service drops, smart meters for large consumers, prepaid meters, and ready boards for LV customers and street lighting). The objective is to provide access to electricity to 152,000 households (around 1.1 m people).
A second phase of the project will focus on Mali, Niger, and Togo. Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mauritania, and Senegal also expressed their interest to join the program at a later stage. The target for the entire project is to connect 2.5 m persons to the electricity grid in the ECOWAS region.