By Hamidou Traore
The heads of the national electricity companies of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso held a workshop in Ouagadougou from February 20 to 22, 2024 to refine strategies for securing the supply of electricity energy to member countries.
This meeting between Énergie du Mali (EDM-SA), the Nigerien Electricity Company (NIGELEC) and the National Electricity Company of Burkina Faso (SONABEL), which touched on security and supply strategies for member countries, intends to be a framework for exchange, reflection and sharing of experiences between the three companies as they experience almost the same realities, according to Souleymane Ouédraogo, the Director General of SONABEL
He said the meeting was requested by the authorities of the three countries to bring together experts in the production, transport, distribution, and marketing of energy aimed at laying the foundations for energy cooperation between the member-states of the newly formed Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
“The latest socio-political developments require that the three companies come closer together and collaborate closely. As technicians, our role is to draw the attention of our authorities to the economic, social, and even security issues linked to the supply of our countries with electrical energy in a difficult sub-regional socio-political context,” Ouédraogo indicated at the start of the discussions.
Burkina Faso’s Minister for Energy, Mines and Quarries, Yacouba Zabré GOUBA, said the supply of energy to the AES countries in the sub-regional socio-political context, has forced electricity companies to rethink the strategy of energy supply.
Gouba pointed out that for the three countries “linked by destiny, history and geography”, it is a question of “developing endogenous solutions and strategies to guarantee electricity to our brave populations already tested by the common enemy that is terrorism.”
He noted that, in the short term, there is a need to find a strategy to implement a secure supply. “In the long term, it will be a question of developing the nuclear power plant,” he noted.
The AES States have experienced a huge drop in energy supplies from their neighbouring West African states that supply most of their electricity needs, due to tough sanctions imposed by the ECOWAS against them. This has seen efforts by the three states to discuss strategies to secure energy independence.
Discussions have led to the proposal of several options and a search for global partners to achieve this goal.
