- MCC has signed an MoU with Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso for energy market integration in both countries.
- MCC had previously signed an agreement with the WAPP.
US government agency, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the governments of Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast for the integration of both countries’ energy markets. . The aim is to integrate these two West African countries into its new regional energy interconnection programme.
This commitment follows a previous agreement signed with the West African Power Pool (WAPP). Under the agreement, WAPP will conduct a feasibility study to assess the viability, socio-economic and environmental impacts of investing in a high-voltage transmission line linking Ferkessédougou in northern Ivory Coast to Bobo-Dioulasso in southern Burkina Faso, with the potential to extend to Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou.
Mahmoud Bah, MCC’s acting executive director, states that “strengthening regional integration will require both the construction of ‘hard’ infrastructure and the implementation of reforms needed to harmonise institutional policies and processes that help reduce or eliminate trade barriers.”
MCC notes that the agreement with WAPP represents the first between MCC and a sub-regional institution such as ECOWAS. The agreement was made possible due to the recent US African Growth and Opportunity Act of 2018 and the Millennium Challenge Act Modernization Act, allowing MCC to make cross-border regional investments.