- Liberia has signed a financing agreement with the World Bank for an additional 60MW renewable energy project geared toward further solving the energy crisis in the country.
- The bank was happy to see the signing ceremony take place just one month after the Board had approved it.
Liberia has signed a financing agreement with the World Bank for an additional 60MW renewable energy project geared toward further solving the energy crisis in the country. The project is an initiative of the World Bank under the Regional Emergency Solar Power Intervention Project (RESPITE). It is a US$311 regional program to scale up electricity access to millions of existing and prospective consumers in Chad, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Togo through rapid deployment of grid-connected renewable energy.
At the signing ceremony, co-hosted by the World Bank and the Government of Sierra Leone in Freetown, The Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Samuel D. Tweah, extended appreciation to the World Bank for increasing financing to Liberia and other countries for tackling infrastructure challenges in the Sub-Saharan region and signed on behalf of the Government of Liberia. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC), Monie Captan, said Liberia would receive US$96 million of the US$311 million financing package for Liberia Sierra Leone, Chad and Togo. He stated, “We will procure a 20MW solar plant located at Mt. Coffee. This will help alleviate dry season challenges and provide affordable energy. Mt. Coffee will be expanded by an additional 40MW.”
Sierra Leone’s Minister of Energy, Alhaji Kanja Sesay, was delighted to host the Inaugural Meeting of the Regional Technical Committee and RESPITE Coordination Unit. He said that the presence and composition of the delegations from various countries and international institutions speak volumes of their importance in the roundtable conference and signing ceremony. Also, the Director of Regional Integration at the World Bank, Madam Boutheina Guermazzi, said she felt highly honoured and privileged to be at the ceremony. She described the occasion as one that brings all of them together to discuss ways to achieve universal energy access for the economic transformation of West Africa. She noted that the bank was happy to see the signing ceremony take place just one month after the Board had approved it.