Promoting renewable energy in West Africa

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The Organisation pour la Mise en Valeur du fleuve Gambie (OMVG) is a regional organisation consisting of the four countries Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea, with the aim of improving the socio-economic integration of the member states through the development and use of the resources of the river basins of the Gambia, Kayanga/Géba and Koliba/Corubal rivers. In this context, the FC is co-financing a regional energy project that is intended to connect the member countries with one another via an electricity transmission system. In total, the construction includes a 1,677 km long 225 kV high-voltage line with fifteen transformer stations and two load distributors. The German FC has financed the section of the electricity transmission system from Kaolack via Birkelane in Senegal to Soma in Gambia. The aim of the FC measure is to improve and stabilise the electricity supply in the member countries of the OMVG through electricity trading and exchange, to deepen regional cooperation and to promote the use of renewable energies. The pipeline was primarily intended to transmit electricity from two hydroelectric power plants that were planned or under construction to the four OMVG member states. The total cost of the OMVG pipeline project was estimated at around EUR 610 million, of which the German Federal Financial Cooperation financed around EUR 27 million in the form of a loan. The OMVG countries themselves contributed EUR 31 million.