Gambia Electricity Support Project

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The objective of the Electricity Support Project for Gambia is to increase the availability and reliability of electricity supply for existing customers. The proposed project will provide basic investment and institutional support to National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC) as part of its strategy to redress its financial and operational performance in the short to medium term. The project consists of the three components are as follows: 1) Expansion of available generation capacity at Kotu and Brikama component will finance improvements of NAWEC’s generation capacity and efficiency in the existing Kotu and Brikama thermal power plants. This will be in the form of rehabilitation and replacement of required equipment, provision of critical spare parts, and financing urgent maintenance activities. This support is critical in view of the worsening generation scenario in The Gambia. 2) Reduction of technical and commercial losses in the Greater Banjul Area (GBA) component will finance improvements in the transmission and distribution (T&D) network in the GBA. The project will contribute to reduce forced outages, as well as to diminish voltage drops, thus improving customer satisfaction. It will also generate higher supply continuity and quality, and increase prepayment metering, which will result in higher returns. 3) Institutional strengthening and project implementation support components will finance a four-year service contract to strengthen NAWEC’s technical, financial, and managerial capacity. The service contractor will assess and assist NAWEC with implementation of the necessary reforms and define a robust, integrated Information Technology (IT) system to integrate accounting, billing, payroll, stock, and other accounting functions. The IT system will streamline NAWEC’s operations, integrating all the processes into one single system. It will also improve the internal and external reporting for NAWEC management and decision making, and enable the process of separation of electricity, water, and sewerage accounts. The owner’s engineer will also provide procurement assistance to the Project Management Team (PMT). This will include support for the implementation of the Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP). Capacity-building activities will include staff training related to project implementation activities, including procurement, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), IT systems, and supervisory control and data acquisition, as well as financing strategic studies to help inform the strategic direction of NAWEC, such as a study on the fiscal implications of NAWEC and options for financial restructuring of NAWEC.