CONAKRY, GUINEA

Guinea’s Prime Minister and Head of Government, Amadou Oury Bah, has urged West African Power Pool (WAPP) member states to prioritise regional electricity complementarity over national isolation, as he opened the 21st session of the WAPP General Assembly in Conakry.

Bah, representing President Mamadi Doumbouya, conveyed the President’s greetings to delegations, executives, independent power producers and technical partners. He called on member states to build a true West African energy community based on shared standards and performance.

He described energy as the foundation of a nation, a matter of sovereignty, competitiveness, social progress and stability, and pointed to the historic interconnection of the 15 countries of the sub-region as proof of what collective action can achieve.

He reaffirmed Guinea’s commitment to regional integration and set out the country’s energy ambition, citing the Kaleta and Souapiti hydropower dams, and future projects including Koukoutamba, Sambangou and Amaria, positioning Guinea to become a regional electricity hub able to supply the sub-region.

“The Republic of Guinea, under the leadership of His Excellency the President of the Republic, reaffirms its readiness to support this collective ambition and to contribute actively to the development of a more integrated, efficient, and united West African energy space,” he said.

Guinea’s Minister of Energy, Laye Sekou Camara, said the session must be a stage of decision and confidence, giving clear guidelines, consolidating governance and turning commitments into tangible results. He said WAPP’s vitality depends on members’ discipline, including compliance with commitments and regular settlement of statutory contributions, which he described as the foundations of its autonomy, credibility and effectiveness.

He said strengthening national access and regional exchanges complement each other, noting that installed capacity should not be confused with capability or with the ability to transport power to consumers. He described interconnection as mutual insurance between states, recalling that Guinea benefited from Senegal’s energy support after the fire at the Coronthie depot in December 2023.

He linked the regional ambition to Guinea’s Simandou 2040 programme and the objective of universal access to electricity, and called for credible liquidity support mechanisms, respected common rules, strengthened institutional capacities and greater participation of women in the sector.

The Chairman of the WAPP Executive Board, Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz, said the second phase of the regional electricity market will be launched in early 2027. He said it will introduce competition through a day-ahead market, where the price of electricity traded between countries will be determined by supply and demand within an organised, transparent and non-discriminatory framework.

“This is not merely a technical development, it represents a fundamental step forward,” he said, noting that two decades of investment in transmission lines, common rules and institutions must now translate into a market that works in practice.

He said the transition will require market discipline, reliable data exchanged in real time, rigorous metering, trustworthy settlement arrangements, and congestion and risk management commensurate with traded volumes.

Abdulaziz said ongoing institutional reform will establish an independent system and market operator, separating system operation from market operation to ensure fairness and shield the process from undue influence. He said the transition must be managed methodically, without disruption to the operational continuity ensured by the Information and Coordination Centre.

He added that no market can thrive without trust, and trust rests on the financial security of transactions, which is the purpose of the Liquidity Enhancement Revolving Fund currently under study. “Statutory contributions are not an administrative formality; they are the foundation of our autonomy and our capacity to act,” he said.

Earlier, WAPP Secretary General Abdoulaye Dia highlighted the synchronisation of the electricity networks of the 15 West African countries as a major milestone, after they achieved four hours and five minutes of synchronisation on Nov. 8, 2025. He said a test scheduled for November 2026, targeting 48 hours of synchronisation, is intended to consolidate that performance and prepare for permanent synchronisation.

Dia said member states and electricity companies face growing expectations on quality of service, security of supply, competitiveness and access. He said WAPP has a responsibility “to make interconnection an operational cooperation, a sustainable, structured and credible reality, so that electricity becomes a real lever for economic and social transformation at the regional level.”

He also pointed to progress on the regional tariff framework, consolidated by decisions adopted in 2026 by the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority, including the transmission tariff methodology, the tariff calculation procedure and the market fee.

The Director General of Electricite de Guinee (EDG), El Hadji Gando Barry, stressed members’ shared responsibility to provide reliable, accessible and sustainable electricity, saying regional integration helps leverage resource complementarities and strengthens3rd solidarity between national systems.

At the end of the session, 17 Transmission System Operators from the Pool signed the Inter-grid Operators Agreement to enable operations through the grid.

The session, held under the theme “Consolidating the regional electricity market as a lever of transformation and resilience for West Africa,” brought together Energy Ministers, utility CEOs and international partners from the 15 ECOWAS member states.