The Economic Community of West African States has moved to strengthen the framework for the establishment of a $75million ECOWAS Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency facility in the region.
President of the ECOWAS Commission, Omar Touray disclosed this on Thursday at the opening of the 93rd Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers holding in Abuja.
Touray also listed other integrated programmes aimed at integrating the region, including the 6,800km Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline projects, regulation on roaming, direct flight among member nations, water, amongst others.
He said, “Framework Document for the Establishment of an ECOWAS Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Facility has been finalised by the Ministers.
This is a new blended finance facility with an initial amount of USD75 million, whose objective is to provide grants, loans and guarantees through regular demand-driven competitive calls for proposals providing clean energy solutions for the ECOWAS region.”
Speaking further on the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline, Touray said, “This regional integrative project aims to build a gas pipeline linking Nigeria to Morocco, feeding ECOWAS member states and Mauritania with future extension to Europe. It is an infrastructure of 6,800 km long, including 5,100 km offshore, with a transport capacity of 30 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year.”
Touray further assured that the “Commission will continue to measure the impact of the community investments in regional cooperation and integration through the Human Capital Development indexes which include both regional and member state’s strategies, and commitments made towards improving health and nutrition, education, entrepreneurship, financial inclusion and digital economy. ”
