Abuja, (Nigeria), 22 March 2022. The Project Management Unit for the Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project (ROGEAP) officially commenced activities in March 2022 within the ECOWAS Department of Energy and Mines in Abuja. The main assignment of the experts in the Project Management Unit (PMU) is to execute the key programmes of ROGEAP that will facilitate access to electricity for households, businesses, and schools in 19 countries[1] across West, North and Central Africa.

ROGEAP is now in its execution phase for the ECOWAS Commission. The PMU was received and briefed at the beginning of March by the ECOWAS Commissioner for Energy and Mines, Mr Sediko Douka. Speaking on behalf of H.E Jean Claude Kassi Brou, President of the ECOWAS Commission, he welcomed the Project Management Unit members, reminding them of the context and the importance of ROGEAP for ECOWAS and its partners.

Launched in 2017 as Regional Off-Grid Electricity Project (ROGEP), the project was restructured and re-launched in November 2020 by ECOWAS and its Technical and Financial Partners as the Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project (ROGEAP). The project aims to increase access to sustainable electricity for households, businesses, government hospitals, schools within communities across the 15 ECOWAS member countries and four other African countries using stand-alone solar products and entirely based on a harmonised regional approach.  The project is being managed by a Steering Committee comprising representatives of the ECOWAS Commission, West African Development Bank and World Bank.

The 338.7 million-US Dollar project is funded by the World Bank, Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and the Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS) of the Netherlands. The ECOWAS Commission, through the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE), and the West African Development Bank (BOAD) are responsible for the implementation of the project’s regional market development component and access to funding for stand-alone solar products component, respectively.

The creation of a business-friendly environment through identification of obstacles, technical and financial support for businesses across the 19 countries concerned in the development of solar energy, and the establishment of credit facilities to develop stand-alone solar products are among the expected outcomes of this project.

It is a blessing for the ECOWAS region which currently has an electricity access rate of only 50%, with renewable energy forming only a fraction of its energy mix. Through ROGEAP, the legal, regulatory, and institutional frameworks will be established and harmonised to encourage private businesses interested in developing off-grid electricity supply through solar products.

The ROGEAP Project will complement existing rural and peri-urban electrification efforts of ECOWAS Member States and is in line with the ECOWAS Master Plan for Rural Electrification adopted in 2018 by the governing bodies. It will therefore support the grid-based Regional Electricity Access Project (ECOWAS-REAP), which is already underway with its Regional Implementation Unit within the Energy and Mines Department of the ECOWAS Commission. At a cost of 690 million US Dollars, the project covers Cote d’Ivoire, the Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and Mauritania.

The two projects combined and the individual efforts of Member States in terms of electrification, have placed the ECOWAS region on the right path towards attaining universal access to energy services by 2030 as advocated by the United Nations “Sustainable Energy for all SE4all” initiative.

[1] 15 ECOWAS countries, and Cameroon, Mauritania, Central African Republic and the DRC.