President Akufo-Addo
The agenda to integrate the electricity markets of the ECOWAS is a non-negotiable plan that must be achieved at all cost, President Akufo Addo has observed.
In his Key Note address delivered at the 12th West African Power Pool General Assembly at the Swiss Spirit Hotel and Suites (Alisa Hotel) under theme; “Regional Electricity Market: Ensuring West African Integration”, President Akufo Addo said the developmental agenda of the ECOWAS sub region demands that a solid electricity general and supply plan is in place to ensure constant power supply of all West African States.
The President called on the participants of the 12th WAPP General Assembly to develop the much-needed framework to support the integration agenda the regional body.
The West African Power Pool (WAPP)
WAPP was created by Decision A/DEC.5/12/99 of the Twenty-second summit of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government. By Decision A/DEC.18/01/06, the Twenty-ninth summit of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government held in Niamey, adopted the Articles of Agreement for WAPP organization and function. The said summit also accorded, by Decision A/DEC.20/01/06, the status of Specialized Institution of ECOWAS.
Since 2006, the Headquarters of WAPP is based in Cotonou further to the signing of Headquarter Agreement with the Republic of Benin.
WAPP Vision
The vision of WAPP is to integrate the national power systems into a unified regional electricity market with the ultimate goal of providing in the medium and long term, a regular and reliable energy at competitive cost to the citizenry of the ECOWAS region.
Mission of WAPP
The Mission of WAPP is to promote and develop power generation and transmission infrastructures as well as to coordination power exchange among the ECOWAS Member states.
Minister for Energy
The Minister of Energy, Boakye Kyeremanteng Agyarko in a welcome address observed that so far 9 out of the 14 mainline States in the West African Subregion have so far been integrated with the hope that the remaining 5 will join the fold by the close of the year 2019. He admonished the participants at 12th edition of General Assembly of WAPP to ensure that their deliberations would come up with a solid plan to achieve electricity market integration in West Africa.
Executive Board Chairman of WAPP
The Executive Board Chairman of WAPP, Mohammed Usman Gur underscored that the decision of ECOWAS to integrate its power generation and distribution efforts is one of the most important steps taken by the subregion. He called on all persons in the West African Sub region to maintain policy uniformity in their various energy sectors of the respective countries in order to avert all implementation conflicts that may arise in WAPP’s efforts at electricity market integration in the region.
