December 1, 2021
By: Mohamed Jalloh
As part of the sub regional cooperation with the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone will soon benefit from electricity supply from the Azito thermal power station in Abidjan. The cooperation was extended to Sierra Leone and neighboring Guinea following the launch of electricity export to Mali, Burkina Fasso, Ghana, Togo and Benin.
“Our production capacity increased by 60% between 2011 and 2019 to reach 2,229 megawatts and is expected to double in the coming years. We export around 11% of gross national electricity production to six ECOWAS countries” explained Abdourahmane Cisse the Ivorian Minister of Oil and renewable energy.
The minister took the opportunity to announce the upcoming inclusion of Sierra Leone and Guinea in the list of states important for electricity produced in Ivory Coast with a respective volume of 150 megawatts/hour each year for each of the two countries.
An initiative supported by the World Bank will organize a round table of donors to finance the fund which will cover in principle six months of electricity sales. While the rate of electricity access in the sub region, West Africa is one of the regions in the world where electricity supply is the most expensive with an average of 24 cents dollars par Kilo watts, compared to 4 cents in Japan, 10 cents in Europe and 14 cents in Asia.
“The share of renewable energies in Cote d` I Voire should stand at 42% in 2030, in accordance with our commitments at cop21”, said Abdourahmen Cisse.
The agreement was further cemented with the recent visit of Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh the vice president of Sierra Leone to the republic of Ivory Coast.