Nigeria will begin electricity trading with other West African countries from June this year. West African Power Pool (WAPP) in conjunction with ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA), the regulatory body for West Africa is hoping to launch the regional electricity market by June.
According to Usman Mohammed, the Chairman of WAPP and the Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), the formalization of the electricity trading arrangement will be under WAPP and the ERERA.
Currently, Nigeria sells electricity only to Benin Republic and Niger Republic.
Electricity trading
Under this arrangement, Nigeria will be buying and selling power from other ECOWAS countries like Ghana and Ivory Coast.
There are various things that are in the regional electricity market and synchronization is just one of them. Therefore, all the electricity across the sub region will have to be synchronized so that from Nigeria to Cote D’Ivoire, there can be the same power frequency.
Payment for power generation
According to the WAPP chairman, they are also working to improve the collection capacities of distribution firms by forming mechanisms that will guarantee payment like this synchronization.”
Furthermore, WAPP is to enable trade between Nigeria and other countries. Trade create jobs; if there is a generation company in Nigeria that sells power to Benin, that company will create job for Nigeria.
The chairman also explained the vision of the regional electricity market. it seeks to provide energy security so that if in future Nigeria has a problem of gas supply, it can import energy from Ghana or Burkina Faso depending on which has cheaper source of energy.
“Our transmission lines will not just last for five to 10 years, we are on a mission for something that should last for 100 years to boost electricity trade,” he said.
