By Asmau Ahmad
The World Bank, Clean Technology Fund and the Dutch Cooperation are to finance the $338.7m (N254bn) power projects in Nigeria and other countries in West Africa.
Parties in the deal are providing the fund to support the implementation of the Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project for countries under the Economic Community of West Africa States.
A statement from ECOWAS in Abuja on Monday, said it had engaged a consortium of firms to provide technical and financial assistance to companies in the off-grid solar PV sector, and financial institutions in the 19 project countries as part of measures to implement the ROGEAP project.
It said, “As part of the implementation of the Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project, the TSC Global/Intech-GOPA/AFC/BB and Co group officially signed a contract on August 1, 2023 in Abuja as project fund manager of the ROGEAP project.
“The service contract signing ceremony took place in the presence of the Chief Executivge Officer/ President of TSC Global, Mr Amara Sackor, representing the group; and Commissioner Sédiko Douka, in charge of Infrastructure, Energy and Digitalisation of ECOWAS, who is also the chairman of the Steering Committee of the ROGEAP project.
“Following a procurement process in accordance with the donor’s procedures, the TSC Global/Intech-GOPA/AFC/BB consortium was retained by the ECOWAS commission as ROGEAP fund manager to provide technical and financial support.”
It said the support was not only to the private sector, but also to commercial banks and microfinance institutions in the countries covered by the project, in support of the Project Management Unit based in Abuja and in Lomé.
On the monetary value of the project and its sponsors, ECOWAS said, “Worth $338.7m the project is financed by the World Bank, the Clean Technology Fund and the Dutch Cooperation.”
It explained that the ROGEAP project fund manager was primarily responsible for supporting ECOWAS to implement the project by ensuring regional ecosystem development for sustainable off-grid industry growth.
It said the fund manager would ensure information sharing on the market and trade facilitation between stakeholders, as well as increase regional demand through consumer awareness and promotion campaigns.
ECOWAS stated that it would “Remove supply-side constraints through building the capacity of commercial financial institutions and other relevant stakeholders.
“The ROGEAP project fund manager will also intervene in the implementation of technical support for capacity building of enterprises characterised by differentiated support throughout the life cycle of enterprise development.”
ROGEAP was initiated in 2017 under the name of Regional Off-Grid Electrification Project, and was then restructured and relaunched in November 2020 by ECOWAS and its technical and financial partners under its current name of Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project.
It aimed to increase access to sustainable electricity services in the 15 ECOWAS member countries, and four other countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Mauritania, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad) for households, commercial enterprises, public infrastructure, health, education, among others.
The ECOWAS Commission Regional Centre for Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency, and the West African Development Bank are responsible for implementing the project.
Their task is to ensure the development component of a regional market and access to finance for isolated solar systems, according to ECOWAS.
