West Africa power pool (WAPP) as a tool for regional integration: options in the global energy market

Summary form only given. The West Africa power pool program (WAPP) is a means by which the utilities in the member countries of the economic community of West African States, ECOWAS, decided to come together to pool the electricity recourses together for cheaper and quality electric power to their citizens. As seen in this paper, many challenges face the pool system, from institutional setup, to pricing and wheeling charges. Above all, the building of the bridges what will allow the electric currents to flow, the funds required and how the utilities will contribute and pay for the services with little internally generated recourses. In other words, the financing options which will include private investment participation, donor agencies, government funds etc, must be pooled together to ensure that lines and substations required for pooling of National Electricity System together are met. This paper also try to summarize the efforts made to date, the donors and the various governments and will try to give and insight to the status and the way forward for the WAPP.