The Managing Director of NAWEC, Mr. Nani Juwara, and the Director General of Senelec, Mr. Papa Mademba Biteye, signed the agreement in Dakar, Senegal, which is meant to facilitate the importation of 50 megawatts of electricity through the Soma and Brikama OMVG substations for a period of five years. NAWEC will initially use 30 megawatts this year on a take-and-pay basis.
With the signing of this agreement and the completion of the 225kV transmission lines and substations of the OMVG from Kaolack-Soma-Brikama, NAWEC for the first time ever, has secured sufficient power capacity in the Greater Banjul Area (GBA) to meet current demand. The new OMVG transmission line has been connected to the local network and the final stages of commissioning and testing are completed.
“This is only one of many steps underway to provide stable electricity to our people. It is a very important milestone that we have been working towards for some time” Mr. Nani Juwara, Managing Director of NAWEC highlighted at the signing ceremony.
The next and most transformative step to stabilizing electricity supply will be to complete the upgrading and extension of the distribution networks. NAWEC has been working hard to maintain and expand existing services while also meeting the rapid growth in demand. However, due to the very poor condition of the network inherited in 2017, this is a huge task that requires extensive investment, which is being negotiated through a series of funders. To this extent, NAWEC requests the patience of the public as they strive to address this through major restructuring to provide better services.
The capacity for imports through the OMVG transmission line to GBA is 150 megawatts, so there is a significant increase in potential to meet the growth in demand with sufficient expansion of the distribution network.
NAWEC is grateful to The Gambia government for facilitating the required funding by donors and lenders, particularly in this instance, The World Bank, African Development Bank and The Kuwaiti Fund for the generous funds that have contributed towards the completion of the transmission lines and substations. Special thanks to the OMVG for the coordination and the final delivery of this important infrastructure for our countries.
This milestone underlines the fact that the NAWEC turnaround program is yielding results.
“We take this occasion to remind you all that our vision at NAWEC is to become one of the best managed and financially viable water and electricity companies in West Africa” Mr. Juwara concluded.
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