Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin, had, on Thursday 16 June 2022, hosted the 38^th Coordination Meeting of the Technical and Financial Partners of the West African Power Pool (WAPP). The biannual statutory meeting of the Executive Board and TFPs of WAPP, which is the ECOWAS agency responsible for regional energy integration, is aimed at mobilising the necessary funding for electricity generation and transmission infrastructure that will help in establishing the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Market.

The opening ceremony was attended by: (i) Benin’s Energy Minister, H.E Dona Jean-Claude Houssou, (ii) the Representative of Benin’s Minister of State for Finance and Economy, Mrs Adidjatou Hassan Zanouvi, (iii) ECOWAS Commissioner for Energy and Mines, Mr Sédiko Douka, (iv) Chairman of WAPP Executive Board, Mr Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz, and (V) Secretary General of WAPP, Mr Siengui A. KI.

Also in attendance at this meeting were the French Development Agency (AFD), Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA),            African Development Bank (AfDB), World Bank (WB), West African Development Bank (BOAD), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA).

The meeting was an opportunity to take stock of the status of the ECOWAS regional electricity market, the 2019-2033 ECOWAS Master Plan projects for the Development of Regional Electricity Generation and Transmission facilities, and the capacity building programme. The meeting also helped to present the funding needs for the next three years, which amount to about USD 5.1 billion.

The TFPs have reaffirmed their commitment to come alongside WAPP Secretariat and expressed interest in funding the projects unveiled.

The 38^th coordination meeting of WAPP Technical and Financial Partners ended with a visit to the work site of the WAPP Information and Coordination Centre in Abomey-Calavi, Benin. The near-completed centre will host the technical component for real-time monitoring of the interconnected power grid and management of the ECOWAS electricity market. It will also serve as headquarters for WAPP Secretariat.