MONROVIA: The African Development Bank (AfDB) has disclosed that US$400 million has been allocated for Liberia’s development, and that of this amount, US$95 million has been allocated to the country’s energy sector.
Liberia Country Manager of the AfDB, Benedict S. Kanu, disclosed that the US$400 million country portfolio of the AfDB to Liberia is about 28% or US$95 million.
Mr. Kanu also said presently, the AfDB is actively involved in three major energy projects across Liberia.
He emphasized that the Bank has been at the forefront of mainstreaming electricity regulatory issues within the broader power discourse of Africa.
Mr. Kanu made the pronouncement recently when he spoke at the official launch of the Regulatory Database Management System (RDBMS) held at the E.J.S Ministerial Complex in Congo Town.
Speaking on the AfDB major projects implementation in Liberia, Mr. Kanu indicated that the Renewable Energy for Electrification in Eastern Liberia (REEL), project is co-financed under the Scaling-up Renewable Energy Program in low Income Countries (SREP).
He said it is a targeted programme of the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF) which aims to install a Hydro Plant at Gbedin Waterfall in Nimba County.
According to him, Hydro Plant at Gbedin Waterfall will generate approximately 9MW along with the construction of distribution networks to provide electricity to the surrounding areas.
The AfDB Country Manager further mentioned that the power plant will be located on the St. Paul River in Nimba County and will connect to the existing cross border line between Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire which is expected to electrify about 100,000 households.
He stressed that through the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) they are sponsoring two significant projects, the Liberia Energy Efficiency and Access Project (LEEAP) co-financed with the European Union under the Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund.
He maintained that LEEAP is constructing a transmission and distribution system in the corridors of the Robert International Airport (RIA) and Pleebo Fish Town in Maryland and River Agee Counties.
“The projects objectives is to supply power to the communities located in the RIA corridors that is from Monrovia to Schefflin, Roberts Field including households, schools, health centers, commercial and industrial businesses,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kanu said the CLSG Rural Electrification Project, a sub component of the CLSG interconnection project is designed to electrify about 30 communities located alongside the CLSG transmission line.
He highlighted that the CLSG Rural Electrification Project will supply power to rural communities including households, schools, health centers, small handicrafts, commercial and industrial businesses and at least 22,000 households will be electrified under the project.
However, Mr. Kanu affirmed the Bank’s commitment to continue supporting soft infrastructure initiatives such as the projects to complement the hard infrastructure in the energy sector such as the power plants and transmission lines towards the attainment of the universal access to electricity in Africa as envisaged under the Bank’s New Deal on Energy for Africa (NDEA) and the Sustainable Development Goals 7.
“The Bank’s initiative underscores the efforts to support its Regional Member countries to improve the quality and effectiveness of energy regulation using bespoke and one-stop-shop solution to address identified regulatory brittleness and create an enabling environment that can promote and attract investment into the energy sector,” he asserted. Contributed by Linda Gbartie