Reliable electricity supply for economic growth underscored

Kampala. Consistent electricity supply is key for socio-economic growth, the East African Community (EAC) Secretary General Liberat Mfumukeko has stressed.

He made the remarks when presiding over the ministerial session of the 12th Council of Ministers of the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP) in Arusha at the weekend.

 “The provision of adequate, reliable, affordable and sustainable energy services is a key priority area in our energy sector for realising the vision we have for East Africa as well as electricity interconnectivity across borders to promote the broader EAC objective of attracting investment and promoting competitiveness and trade,” he said in a speech made available to The Citizen.

 He urged EAPP to engage with the EAC Secretariat and its Partner States - Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan - in the formulation of the 10-year Strategic Action Plan which will address the underlying challenges within the energy sector across the region.

Member countries of the region have actively been implementing power generation and transmission projects with most of the interconnection projects now progressing so fast that before 2020 all of EAPP’s members -with the exception of Libya and Egypt - would be interconnected by power exchange (trade).

Libya and Egypt are already connected but the proposed link between Egypt and Sudan is now at feasibility study stage.

Present at the meeting were senior officers from the member countries’ energy sectors, Independent Regulatory Board members and Development Partners, including the World Bank, Power Africa, Sweden, African Development Bank, Norway together with China.

The participants engaged in discussions around Bilateral Trading Platforms which is part of EAPP’s future prospects.