Cote d’Ivoire will supply electricity to Sierra Leone as part of the Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea (CLSG) Power Grid Interconnection Project.
This supply of electricity was the subject, on Wednesday in Abidjan, of the signing of a power purchase contract between the Ivorian Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Energy, Thomas Camara, and his counterpart in Energy of Sierra Leone, Alhaji Kanja Sesay.
The contract was initialed by the Director General of Cote d’Ivoire-Energies, Noumory Sidibe, the Director General of the Ivorian Electricity Company (CIE), Ahmadou Bakayoko and the Acting Director General of the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority of Sierra Leone (EDSA), James Rogers. A similar contract was signed on Tuesday by Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea.
Under the terms of this three-year renewable contract, Cote d’Ivoire undertakes to supply 70 GWh to Sierra Leone each year for the first two years (2021 and 2022) and 100 GWh the third year in 2023.
“These signatures put an end to a long and arduous negotiation process that began in June 2020,” said the Director General of Cote d’Ivoire-Energies, Sidibe Noumory.
For Minister Thomas Camara, this project is the vision of the President of the Republic, Alassane Ouattara, to make Côte d’Ivoire, the energy hub of the sub-region. Continuing, he said “respectfully thank you” to President Ouattara for the confidence and resources made available to us to manage to implement this vision.
“We are also participating in the leadership position in the sub-region at the level of regional integration,” Thomas Camara added, stressing that “expectations are very high in Sierra Leone.”
“It is important that we mobilize to ensure that electricity is available as soon as possible, in quantity and quality, according to the terms of the contract,” he concluded, addressing his staff.
“This project is highly important and strategic for the development of my country because it will allow Sierra Leone to make the transition from utilitarian to productive energy,” Sierra Leone’s Minister of Energy, Alhaji Kanja Sesay said. He also thanked the Ivorian authorities for having agreed to conclude this contract with Sierra Leone.
“It is a project that will allow the electrification of the south-eastern part of the country, which is a mining area. Better still, this project will promote the strengthening of production capacities, particularly those of SMEs, with the aim of improving the living conditions of the population,” Minister Alhaji Kanja Sesay explained.
The CLSG electricity interconnection project will establish a dynamic electricity market in the West African sub-region and secure the supply of electricity to the countries. This signing is part of the priority projects of the West African Power Pool (WAPP) master plan.
PIG/ls/fss/abj/APA