Speakers at the summit include government officials from Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeria and the Togolese Republic as well as experts in the energy sector.
Stakeholders in the energy sector across West Africa will for the next two days discuss the region’s ailing energy sector.
The discussions, aimed at fostering energy cooperation among West African countries, is part of the inaugural West Africa Energy Cooperation Summit (WAECS) in Lome, the capital of Togo.. The three-day event kicked off with a welcome address on Tuesday evening.
The summit is organised by Energy Net, an organisation facilitating discussion, investments and collaborative dialogues on power generation, and sponsored by the Togolese government. The theme of the summit is ‘Empowering West Africa’s Growth Through Strategic Energy Partnerships’.
Speakers at the summit include government officials from Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeria and the Togolese Republic as well as experts in the energy sector.
Participating ministers, according to the agenda, are the Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Digitalisation, ECOWAS, Sediko Douka; Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Energy, Côte d’Ivoire, Mamadou Coulibaly; Minister of State (Gas), Petroleum Resources, Nigeria, Obongemem Ekpo; Deputy Minister for Energy, Ministry of Mines and Energy, Republic of Liberia, Charles Umehai; and the Minister of Mines and Energy Resources, Togolese Republic, Robert Mossan Eklo.
Three priorities
In his opening address, the Portfolio Manager and Head of Corporate Development at Energy Net, Abdoulaye Sylla, noted that West Africa deserves energy at the height of its aspirations.
He said the summit marks an important step in collective commitment to seize available opportunities to transform the energy system.
“West Africa is a rich region, not only because of its natural resources, but also because of the resilience and ingenuity of its people,” he said.
Therefore, it is unacceptable that in this wealth, millions of West Africans continue to live without access to reliable and affordable energy, said Mr Sylla.
He maintained that universal access to energy is not a luxury but a necessity, a lack of which limits the possibilities of education, healthcare and economic development.
He listed the challenges of the sector to include the lack of investment, leading to significant losses and widespread inefficiency.
“While everyone is moving towards renewable energies, we must ensure that this transition is fair, inclusive and adapted to our regional context,” he said.
Mr Sylla also suggested three priorities to transform West Africa into a pioneering region in the field of clean and affordable energy. According to him, the priorities are strengthening regional cooperation, promoting renewable energies such as solar, wind, hydraulic and biomass energy and encouraging private and public investment.
He said, “The interconnection of our electrical networks, the mutualisation of resources and the coordination of energy policies will allow us to maximise our collective capacity.
“It is essential to create a favorable environment to attract capital by strengthening governance, transparency and regulatory stability in the energy sector.”
‘Energy, keystone of our future’
In her welcome address, the Prime Minister of the Togolese Republic, Victoire Dogbé, said her country is proud to host the inaugural summit as it “believes deeply” in the power of collaboration and cooperation.
She said energy is the keystone of the future for West Africans as it remains at the heart of economic development, job creation and poverty reduction.
Ms Dogbé noted that more than 50 per cent of households in West Africa do not yet have access to electricity, with the figure as high as 80 per cent in rural communities, a situation, she said, that is holding back the region’s potential for growth and increasing the vulnerability of the people.
“Access to energy is above all a question of social justice, particularly in a context where the successive and continuous subsidy of climate, economic, financial and security crises remind us of the urgency of building regional energy resilience,” she said.
“We cannot do it alone. That is why we are talking about collaboration, consultation, we are talking about region. And this resilience, whose stock name will be energy reliability, does not necessarily involve investments, significant investments in subsidiary and affordable energy sources.”
Ms Dogbé hoped that the summit would lay the foundations for a prosperous and sustainable future for West Africans.
“With a population of more than 400 million inhabitants, rapid urbanisation, sustained growth in economies, our nations must meet an unprecedented energy demand,” she added
Population, Energy production not growing at same pace
Speaking earlier, the Commissioner for Infrastructure, Energy and Digitalisation at ECOWAS, Sediko Douka, said the region has abundant resources to increase energy production for the people, yet the major challenge for the sector remains insufficiency and low access to electricity.
Mr Douke said energy production in the region is not growing in the same places as the increasing population needing access to energy. He added that the region has some of the most expensive electricity tariffs in the world.
“Based on these indicators, and the population growth, we will be facing a critical situation, in which we must provide concerted responses now, by combining our efforts through appropriate cooperation mechanisms,” he said.