The World Bank, Clean Technology Fund, and the Dutch Cooperation will fund $338.7 million in solar power projects in Nigeria and other West African nations. The deal’s parties are contributing the financing to support the Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project for countries in the Economic Community of West African States.
As part of the measures to implement the ROGEAP project, ECOWAS that it had engaged a consortium of firms to provide technical and financial assistance to companies in the off-grid solar PV sector, as well as financial institutions in the 19 project countries.
“As part of the Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project implementation, the TSC Global/Intech-GOPA/AFC/BB and Co group officially signed a contract on August 1, 2023 in Abuja as project fund manager of the ROGEAP project,” it stated.
“The service contract signing ceremony was attended by the group’s Chief Executive Officer/President, Mr Amara Sackor, and ECOWAS Commissioner Sédiko Douka, in charge of Infrastructure, Energy, and Digitalisation, who is also the chairman of the ROGEAP project’s Steering Committee.”
“Following a procurement process in accordance with the donor’s procedures, the TSC Global/Intech-GOPA/AFC/BB consortium was retained as ROGEAP fund manager by the ECOWAS commission to provide technical and financial support.”
It stated that the ROGEAP project fund manager was primarily responsible for assisting ECOWAS with project implementation by assuring regional ecosystem development for sustainable off-grid business growth. The fund manager will promote market information sharing and trade facilitation among stakeholders, as well as raise regional demand through consumer awareness and marketing efforts.
According to ECOWAS, it will “remove supply-side constraints by strengthening the capacity of commercial financial institutions and other relevant stakeholders, not only to the private sector, but also to commercial banks and microfinance institutions in the project’s target nations, in support of the Project Management Units in Abuja and Lomé.”
ROGEAP started in 2017 as the Regional Off-Grid Electrification Project, but was reformed and relaunched in November 2020 as the Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project by ECOWAS and its technical and financial partners.
It sought to enhance access to sustainable energy services for homes, commercial enterprises, public infrastructure, health, and education in the 15 ECOWAS member countries and four other Sub-Saharan African countries (Mauritania, Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Chad).
The project is being implemented by the ECOWAS Commission Regional Centre for Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency and the West African Development Bank. According to ECOWAS, their job is to assure the development component of a regional market and access to funding for isolated solar systems.
