$338.7m ECOWAS off-grid electricity project commence in Abuja – Nexus News
The Project Management Unit (PMU) for the $338.7 million Regional Off-Grid Electricity Access Project (ROGEAP) has officially begun its operation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Department of Energy and Mines in Abuja.
The operation is revealed to provide electricity for households, businesses, and schools in 19 countries across West, North and Central Africa.
With ROGEAP now in its initiative phase, the ECOWAS Commission is focused on a positive result for the region, which presently has an electricity access rate of only 50 percent, with renewable energy forming only a fraction of its energy mix.
At a cost of $690 million, the project covers Cote d’Ivoire, the Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, and Mauritania.
THIS was as Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, a subsidiary of Standard Bank Group, implored Nigerian investors and business owners to capture business opportunities created in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, stating this will enhance intra-African trade beyond the present level of 17 percent and promote industrialisation and economic development of the continent.
Wole Adeniyi, Chief Executive, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, disclosed this, yesterday, at the African Continental Free Trade Area webinar organized by Stanbic IBTC, themed: ‘AfCFTA State of Play: Understanding Potential and Maximizing Opportunities for the Customer’.
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Wole noted that multiple studies have revealed that increase in trade has a great impact on reducing unemployment and poverty in societies.
He said that the AfCFTA agreement presents various trade opportunities that are both exciting and promising, not just for the continent but also for the Nigerian market.
While giving his keynote address on the theme of the event, the guest speaker, Bamidele Ayemibo, lead consultant at 3T Impex Trade Academy, emphasized that with the implementation of the AfCFTA agreement, Africa has the opportunity of becoming the biggest market in the world, with a population of 1.2 billion people and a joint GDP of $3.4 trillion.
MEANWHILE, ECOWAS flagged off the West African Research Network on Organized Crime (WARNOC) with the aim of better understanding Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) and directly shaping better responses to organized crime in the region.
The network was initiated during the first Regional Multi-Stakeholder Discussion on Addressing TOC in West Africa, convened in Abuja on 17th of March.
The network is part of the ECOWAS scheme to work with civil society to ensure fruitful responses to organized crime, in line with the ECOWAS Political Declaration on Prevention of Drug Abuse, Illicit Drug Trafficking and Organized Crimes in West Africa of 2008.
