Mr Siengui Apollinaire, the Secretary-General of the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP) has expressed gratitude to Togbe Afede XIV, Co-Founder of Sunon Asogli Power Ghana and his investment partners, the Shenzhen Energy Group, for their interest in finding a solution to the power sector in the West African sub-region.
He said the initiative proposed by Togbe Afede and partners would be an invaluable boost to finding solutions to the myriad of under-capacity or generation issues hindering the stability and affordability of electric power in the countries of the sub-region for immediate take-off of the regional electricity trade.
Mr Apollinaire said this when a delegation of Sunon Asogli Ghana and partners led by Togbe Afede XIV called on him to seek an audience of his Secretariat to explore opportunities for cooperation in the development of the viable WAPP Priority Generation Projects in Cotonou, Benin.
He commended Sunon Asogli Ghana as an invaluable member of the WAPP that was on time in the discharge of its membership obligations.
The Secretary-General of the WAPP indicated that the Master Plan 2019-2033 adopted by the Conference of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS countries in December 2018, provided for the implementation of 75 priority energy generation and transmission projects at an estimated funding cost of US$36billion.
He added that the implementation of the ambitious plan would, among other things, make it possible to finalize the interconnection projects of 14 ECOWAS countries and to launch the competitive phase of the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Market.
Togbe Afede said he was passionate in bringing development across the ECOWAS sub-region and assured the Secretariat of his partners’ readiness, financially and technologically, to invest as independent power producers in several ECOWAS countries.
The delegation was taken round to see the progress of work at the Information and Coordination Centre of the WAPP which is expected to become operational by the end of the year.
The delegation included; Mr. Wang Zhengjun, the Deputy General Manager, Messrs Elikplim Kwabla Apetorgbor and Li Kanglin, Business Development Managers of the West Africa Development Unit.