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West Africa to hold forum on regional electricity market

Burkina Faso

Major players in the electricity sector in West Africa will meet in the Burkinabe capital of Ouagadougou on November 16 to push forward the agenda of the proposed regional electricity market.

ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA) said the forum aims to promote cooperation and information sharing among the regulatory bodies of West African states, the Accra-based.

ERERA Chairman Honore Bogler said electricity regulation remained largely unknown to West African authorities, while the forum can enable regulators to convince policy makers that electricity regulation was the best way to addressing many power challenges in Africa.

“The forum will afford us an opportunity to focus on the numerous electricity-related issues facing our region. We have huge but unevenly spread potentials, and we have to be smart,” he said.

The regional bloc has set the ambitious goals to increase the share of renewable energy to 31 percent of its energy mix and to achieve 100-percent access to sustainable energy by 2030.

Part of ERERA’s mandate is to assist West African countries without national electricity regulators to set up their own and contribute meaningfully to the development of the region.

Senegal: West Africa to hold forum on regional electricity market https://t.co/Hxt9ssnGx7

— Energy Directory (@energydirnet) November 11, 2016

The phase one of the regional electricity market, which is set for a launch in the first quarter of 2017, will address the twin problems of energy access and energy security.

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