Cost Of Electricity In West Africa Now Highest Globally

Power consumers in Nigeria and other West African countries pay the highest amount of money for electricity when compared to what obtains in other parts of the world.

According to the West African Power Pool, the cost of electricity in the subregion needs to be reduced in order to help enhance the economies of countries in West Africa.

WAPP is a specialised body of the Economic Community of West African States that works to integrate the national power systems in the subregion into a unified electricity market in order to ensure reliable power for citizens.

Speaking at the WAPP Joint Committee Meeting in Abuja on Monday, the Executive Board Chairman of the body, Usman Mohammed, said the group was working to cut down the cost of electricity in the subregion.

Mohammed, who doubles as the Managing Director, Transmission Company of Nigeria, said, “West Africa as at today has the highest cost of energy all over the world and the objective of WAPP is to reduce the cost of energy.

“We can reduce the cost of energy by ensuring that we eliminate emergency (power) generation, where countries generate power through a very costly fuel system that increases the end-user cost.”

He noted that WAPP was mainly set up to reduce the cost of energy and increase access to electricity in West Africa.