By Bakary Touray Jr.
The Regional Off-Grid Electrification Project (ROGEP), which was initiated by ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) with funding from the World Bank Group, has renewed its commitment to addressing the problem of electricity supply in the rural Gambia.
This commitment was re-echoed at the recent validation of the Off-Grid Solar Market Assessment and Private Sector Facility Design Report.
The project, which had been launched in 19 countries in West Africa and the Sahel- {namely Tchad, Cameroon, CAR and Mauritania}, aims to enhance shared capacity, institutions and knowledge in order to increase electricity access of households, businesses and public institutions by using modern stand-alone solar systems through a harmonized regional approach.
Mr. Momodou Sarr, Adviser to the Petroleum and Energy Minister said the validation is significant, owing ROGEP seeks to extend power light to the rural communities, that are not fortunate to have the national grid.
He noted that supplying national grid to the rural households is exorbitant and might not reach all the areas; as such ROGEP ensures electric city supply to the remote villages in lieu of the national grid- which is time consuming and expensive.
Mr. Sire Diallo, Coordinator of the Private Sector Support Facility of ROGEP, told participants that the validation workshop was to ensure market assessment within the framework of ROGEP. The market assessment, in his explanation, was initiated to comprehend the dynamics of the market, understand issues and gaps that countries are facing in terms of off-grid electrification.
He, therefore, believed that the interventions gained from the said workshop would help us provide solutions, especially in the remote villages of the national grid.
Diallo reported that, “As of 2016, over 200 million people in West Africa and the Sahel – more than half of the region’s population–lacked access to electricity.This figure represents nearly one-third of Africa’s total un-electrified population”.
He asserted that the rates of urban and rural electrification vary widely across the region, with the average rate of access more than three times higher in urban areas (60%) when compared to 18 percent in the rural areas.
“In 2016, approximately half of The Gambia’s population– an estimated 1 million people – lacked access to electricity, with a significant disparity between rates of access in urban (66%) and rural (13%) areas. Even where grid connections exist, power supply is often unreliable,” the participants heard.
In this context, he disclosed, the funding from by the World Bank Group, Green Technology Facility and the Government of Netherlands, is aimed at working towards the attainment of sustainable energy in the rural communities.
