West Africa Power Pool (WAPP) is a specialised agency of ECOWAS established in 1999 and officially set up in 2006 to strategically devise a drive for infrastructure development for the production and transportation of electrical energy while coordinating the exchange of electrical energy among member states.

The ICC will serve as a trading platform for various electricity market players under the ECOWAS Mandated Regional Electricity Market regulated by WAPP.

The concept of the Regional Electricity Market is mandated by ECOWAS Heads of State and Government aimed at enhancing cooperation in electric energy within the West Africa Sub- Region.

It is a strategic initiative which promotes competitive and transparent cross-border electricity trade among ECOWAS Member States.

The ICC will therefore collect essential information from the exchanges carried out by the electricity meters on the main international lines in the different parts of the region as well as all the information on purchases and sales, allowing planning between all companies involved in the distribution of electricity in West Africa.

The WAPP Information and Coordination Centre is a European Union (EU) €30 million (Euros) support which will deliver a modern office complex, a coordinating centre as well as the core of the infrastructurethe Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems control room to undertake real time monitoring of the regional interconnected network and facilitate the administration of the Regional Electricity Market.

Choices can be made to buy and sell power generated from thermal, renewable, hydro sources. While its monitoring system will show multiple screens reflecting in real time the exchange flows from Senegal to Nigeria from the Sahel to the Gulf of Guinea.

The inauguration of WAPP, scheduled to take place on November 17, 2023, will be a significant step towards realising the vision for an integrated, prosperous, and energy self- sufficient West Africa.

Mr Ki, who addressed journalists after a tour of the million Euro facility in Benin prior to its inauguration saidthe facility would implement the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Market in Benin Republic.

Explaining the constituents of Regional Electricity Market, he saidWAPP's Regional Electricity Market players were made up of consumersproducerstransporters, distributors and that a market simulation operation to buy and sell electricity on a regional scale was ready.

He assured that WAPP would regulate and supervise the market to ensure it was open and transparent and announced that there were plans to connect the ECOWAS regional market to others such as North Africa and Europe for future electricity market competitiveness.

Mr Ki, explaining the strategic nature of the lec project and the implementation of the Regional Electricity Market, said the market would bring competitionleading to the best possible rates
for electricity prices for customers.

Mr Joel Neubert, Head of Cooperation, European Union, said the EU's collaboration would enable ECOWAS and WAPP to improve electricity access.

He said, "we want to support its ambition to develop an interconnected electricity network which is open, modern and efficient."

Demand for electricity in the subregion, the EU Official said, was projected at eight per cent annually and that the ICC would promote regional integration in the electricity energy sector.