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The West African Power Pool (WAPP) is planning to create a Liquidity Enhancement Revolving Fund (LERF) for the sub-regional electricity market of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The Chairman, Executive Board of WAPP, and Managing Director/CEO, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Sule Abdulaziz, stated this last month during the 54th Executive Board Meeting of WAPP which held in Cotonou, Benin Republic.

Dr. Abdulaziz said that the board meeting reviewed the proposal of the WAPP Finance Committee for the establishment of the liquidity enhancement and revolving fund.

“The creation of this fund will provide the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Market with a very important tool for electricity trading by reducing the level of outstanding bills, thereby providing stakeholders in the trade with a high degree of robustness and sustainability," said the Board chair in a statement sent to Financial Nigeria.

During the meeting, the Board also reviewed the 2021 financial statement of the sub-regional organisation, which the Chairman lauded as “transparent.”

"When I look at the financial statement, I get the feeling that WAPP is working hard, and that it is quite transparent as shown in the independent audit report. This attests to the fact that the financial statements are in accordance with international standards," said Abdulaziz.

In his remarks, the Secretary General of WAPP Executive Board, Siengui Apollinaire Ki, emphasised that the latest financial statements were transparent.

"The 2021 budget was executed transparently and rigorously, and it is with pleasure that I announce that the 2021 consolidated financial statements of our organization have been declared … [to be] compliant with international standards by a well know independent auditor”.

Mr. Ki expressed gratitude to President Patrice Talon of the Republic of Benin for the hospitality extended to the organization and for hosting the meeting.

The participants observed one-minute silence for the late Joseph Makoju, an honorary member of the WAPP Board from Nigeria who passed away in April this year, for his contributions to the development of organisation.

The West African Power Pool is a specialized agency of the ECOWAS. It comprises 14 of the 15 countries of the sub-regional economic community (Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone – with the exception of Togo), as well as private sector power entities. According to information on its website, the vision of the organisation is to integrate the national power systems of member countries into a unified regional electricity market with the ultimate goal of providing in the medium- to long-term a regular and reliable energy at competitive cost to the people of the ECOWAS sub-region.