Energy in West Africa Issues and policy approaches

The West African Subregion, consisting of 16 member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), is one of the poorest regions in the world and its energy problems are formidable. It is currently confronted with a double energy squeeze — high costs of both traditional energy and imported commercial energy. This paper identifies some of the community's energy problems and the necessary policy measures required to tackle them. It argues that the best strategy for an effective solution to these energy problems is through a combination of regional cooperative effort and more vigorous country level effort at energy resource development and utilization. Fortunately, the institutional framework for such a regional strategy has been established in the articles setting up the community in 1975. The need for energy institution building and strengthening at country and regional level in ECOWAS is also emphasized as this is critical for meaningful energy policymaking.