The mid-term review meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Regional Electricity Access Project (REAP) commenced on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, in Abuja, Nigeria. The purpose of the meeting is to evaluate the objectives achieved and challenges encountered since the project's inception in 2018, assess progress made, and identify necessary adjustments to achieve its goals.
Attendees included experts from the ECOWAS Regional Coordination Unit, coordinators of National Project Implementation Units from The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Mali, as well as staff from the regional organization's Commission. World Bank team leader Ms. Elise Massan Akitani emphasized the importance of this review.
"This meeting will enable us, together with ECOWAS and all the countries involved in the project, to review the successes of PRAE’s implementation, identify areas for improvement, and take decisions to accelerate the project’s implementation in order to achieve results by the end of the project in December 2025," she said.
Initiated in 2018 with support from the World Bank, the US$225 million Regional Electricity Access Project aims to bring electricity to 578 localities across The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Mali.
Representing Dr. Oumar Alieu Touray, President of the ECOWAS Commission; Sédiko Douka, Commissioner for Infrastructure; Energy and Digitalisation; Director of Energy and Mines Bayaornibè Dabiré expressed gratitude to the World Bank for its support. He reiterated ECOWAS's commitment to achieving project success and acknowledged efforts by national implementation units despite facing several challenges.
"Even if these difficulties affect the overall efficiency of the project," Dabiré stated. "We can safely acknowledge that the strategic objective has not been undermined, and the project remains a priority that is perfectly aligned with sectoral energy objectives."
He encouraged participants to engage in open discussions to derive lessons that would better guide future actions.
"This mid-term review meeting comes at a crucial time to assess overall relevance and performance of the project," he concluded. "And make key recommendations to speed up its implementation."
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