By Williams Anuku Abuja
THE Federal Executive Council (FEC) has given approval to Nigeria’s contribution of $2 million to the 2020 budget of the West African Power Pool (WAPP).
The decision was reached at the weekly FEC meeting held on Wednesday in Abuja presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Saleh Mamma, Minister of Power, disclosed the outcome of the meeting to State House Correspondents.
The specialized pool funds cover 14 of the 15 countries of the regional economic community (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra.
The West African Power Pool (WAPP) was created by a decision at the 22nd Summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Authority of Heads of State and Government in 1999.
At the 29th Summit of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government held in Niamey, in 2006, it adopted the Articles of Agreement for WAPP organization and functions.
According to Saleh who briefed alongside his colleagues, Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami and Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, said participation in the regional market will generate immediate foreign exchange for Nigeria as oil revenue is dwindling.
“The pool is about having synergy within the West African region. The decision has been taken by ECOWAS, it’s for the generation of electricity of the region, so as to have a more constant and steady power supply. It’s like the national grid in Nigeria, so we are going to have a regional grid. It means in case there is a failure in one country, another can supplement it. The $2 million is a contribution,” he said.
Also commenting, Mohammed said: “The West African power pool is made up of all west African countries because each member state contributes annually to the cost of power transmission across the pool. Because, the consequence is that if there is a problem in one country it could inadvertently affect the other countries.
“This was created in 1999 by authorities of the West African Heads of State. It’s a common pool and every country has its own section and our contribution for this year is $2 million. It’s not as if we are giving $2 million to ECOWAS, we are simply paying our own contribution for the transmission from Nigeria to other West African countries and vice -visa.”
