World Bank to provide USD 300 million to promote electricity trade in West Africa

The World Bank has announced that it would provide USD 300 million to the International Development Associations (IDA) to accelerate reforms to promote electricity trade in West Africa, according to a news report by Mercom India.

The grant would help Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, and Sierra Leone implement sector reforms toward achieving the potential of the regional power market.

The World Bank has said that the new resources would help set out a regional energy reform program in the region through its three different stages. The first stage would aim to boost confidence in the enforcement of commercial arrangements related to energy trade.

The second stage would be to increase competition among regional options to implement the least-cost investment decisions. The final stage would be to keep the market informed to create transparency about key investment decisions, which can affect demand and supply.

According to the press release, the West Africa Regional Energy Trade Development Policy Financing Program (West Africa Energy DPF) aims to facilitate easy energy trade in West Africa.

The new energy trade can improve the resilience and reliability of electricity supply at a lower rate for consumers in the region. West Africa Energy DPF is the primary development policy financing (DPF) program of the World Bank, which uses its operations towards a common goal across several countries through the IDA regional window.