Senegal - Project to Improve Access to Electricity in Peri-Urban and Rural Areas

The present intervention is related to the improve access to electricity in peri-urban and rural areas Project (PAMACEL). It stems from Senelec’s comprehensive “Universal Electricity Access Programme” whose objective is to connect at least 600 000 new customers by 2025. The project seeks to rehabilitate and extend the low- and medium-voltage distribution networks in these areas in all regions of the country, and to improve Senelec’s business management and governance by training staff, replacing thousands of post-payment metres with prepayment ones and establishing a monitoring and evaluation unit. PAMACEL seeks to improve electricity distribution and increase the population’s access to quality power supply in many peri-urban and rural areas located within Senelec’s concession areas in all regions of Senegal outside Dakar, which is covered by other projects. Access by rural dwellers to basic services such as electricity is one of the means of improving inclusive economic growth in a country with a relatively wide disparity between urban and rural areas. The project will help to: (i) increase the national electricity access rate from 68% in 2017 to 75% in 2022 by connecting 75 000 new subscribers; (ii) reduce the rate of overall power losses from 23% to 15% in the localities concerned; and (iii) strengthen Senelec’s business management and governance. It comprises three components, namely: (i) Infrastructures; (ii) institutional support; and (iii) project management.