MONROVIA, LIBERIA-Liberia is among six West African countries expected to benefit from a three-hundred-million United States Dollar International Development Association credits and grants.

It is to support reforms to electricity trade in the region.

The World Bank Board of Directors approved the funding Tuesday, July 28, 2020, under the West African Regional Energy Trade Development Policy Financing Program.

According the release, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali and Sierra Leone would benefit from the funds to facilitate trade in cleaner low cost electricity generated from gas, hydropower and renewable energy across borders.

The release said the policy reform seeks to remove barriers to electricity trade, which will lower electricity costs, support the competitiveness of trade and improve resilience and reliability of supply.

It said only fifty percent of the population in West Africa have access to electricity, and those who do, pay among the highest prices in the world, more than double those of consumers in East Africa.

Meanwhile, World Bank Vice President for Western and Central Africa, Ousmane Diagana, has expressed optimism that West Africa has a huge potential for clean and green energy generation.

Mr. Diagana said:” When countries in the region unlock such potential; it will bring lower cost electricity to communities and help create jobs.”

The release quotes Mr. Diagana as saying, coordinated policies paired with effective institutions and regulatory frameworks to improve trust in electricity trade and usher in a new era of affordable and reliable energy in West Africa.

At the same time, the President of ECOWAS Commission, Jean Claude-Kassi Brou, thanked the World Bank for the program.

Mr. Kassi Brou said:”The West African Power Pool has done the fundamental work of inter-connecting national grids, and that it is now time to realize the full strength of the regional power market.”