West African countries must put shared electricity markets ahead of national self-reliance, Guinea’s Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah told delegates in Conakry, as the West African Power Pool prepares to launch a day-ahead trading market in early 2027.
Bah made the call while opening the 21st session of the WAPP General Assembly, held on 6 and 7 November 2027.
He represented President Mamadi Doumbouya and conveyed the President’s greetings to delegations, executives, independent power producers and technical partners.
The Prime Minister urged member states to build a true West African energy community founded on shared standards and performance.
He described energy as the foundation of a nation, a matter of sovereignty, competitiveness, social progress and stability, and cited the historic interconnection of the sub-region’s fifteen countries as proof of what collective action can achieve.
He reaffirmed Guinea’s commitment to regional integration and highlighted the strategic importance of the Kaleta and Souapiti hydropower dams, along with planned projects at Koukoutamba, Sambangou and Amaria.
These, he said, position Guinea as a regional electricity lung able to supply its neighbours and anchor energy solidarity.
“The Republic of Guinea, under the leadership of His Excellency the President of the Republic, reaffirms its readiness to support this collective ambition and to contribute actively to the development of a more integrated, efficient, and united West African energy space,” he said.
The Chairman of the WAPP Executive Board, Engr. Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz, announced that the second phase of the regional electricity market will begin in early 2027.
It will introduce competition through a day-ahead market in which the price of electricity traded between countries is set by supply and demand within an organised, transparent and non-discriminatory framework.
“This is not merely a technical development, it represents a fundamental step forward,” he said, adding that two decades of investment in transmission lines, common rules and institutions must now produce a market that works in practice.
He said the transition will demand market discipline, with rules understood and applied by all, reliable real-time data exchange, rigorous metering, trustworthy settlement arrangements, and congestion and risk management suited to traded volumes.
Abdulaziz also said the ongoing institutional reform will create an independent system and market operator, separating system operation from market operation to ensure fair decision-making and protect the process from undue external influence.
The transition, he stressed, must be managed methodically and without weakening the operational continuity provided by the Information and Coordination Centre.
No market can thrive without trust, he added, and trust depends on the financial security of transactions. That is the purpose of the Liquidity Enhancement Revolving Fund, which is currently under study and structuring.
“Statutory contributions are not an administrative formality; they are the foundation of our autonomy and our capacity to act,” he said, urging chief executives to treat payment as a personal priority.
Guinea’s Minister of Energy, Laye Sékou Camara, said the 21st session must be a stage of decision and confidence that gives clear guidelines, consolidates governance and turns commitments into tangible results.
He said the vitality of WAPP rests on the discipline of its members, including compliance with commitments and regular settlement of statutory contributions, which he called the foundations of its autonomy, credibility and effectiveness.
Camara argued that strengthening national access and regional exchanges complement rather than oppose each other. Installed capacity, he noted, should not be confused with capability or with the ability to transport power to the consumer.
He described interconnection as mutual insurance between states and recalled that Guinea itself received energy support from Senegal after the fire at the Coronthie depot in December 2023.
He linked the regional ambition to Guinea’s Simandou 2040 programme and the goal of universal electricity access. He also called for credible liquidity support mechanisms, respected common rules, stronger institutional capacities and greater participation of women in the sector’s professions and decisions.
Speaking earlier, WAPP Secretary General Abdoulaye Dia pointed to the synchronisation of the networks of the fifteen West African countries as a major milestone. The grids ran together for four hours and five minutes on 8 November 2025. A further test scheduled for November 2026, targeting forty-eight hours, is meant to consolidate that result and prepare the ground for permanent synchronisation.
Dia said member states and utilities face rising expectations on service quality, security of supply, competitiveness and access. WAPP, he said, has a responsibility “to make interconnection an operational cooperation, a sustainable, structured and credible reality, so that electricity becomes a real lever for economic and social transformation at the regional level.”
He also noted progress on the regional tariff framework, consolidated by 2026 decisions of the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority covering the transmission tariff methodology, the tariff calculation procedure and the market fee.
The session was held under the theme “Consolidating the regional electricity market as a lever of transformation and resilience for West Africa.” Dia thanked Guinea for its central role in sub-regional energy cooperation.
Welcoming delegates, the Director General of Electricité de Guinée (EDG), El Hadji Gando Barry, stressed the shared responsibility of WAPP members to deliver reliable, accessible and sustainable electricity.
Regional integration, he said, helps harness complementary resources and strengthens solidarity between national systems.
At the close of the session, seventeen Transmission System Operators from the Pool signed the Inter-grid Operators Agreement to enable operations through the grid.
The assembly brought together energy ministers, utility chief executives and international partners from the 15 ECOWAS member states.
Discussions covered the near completion of network synchronisation, the coming launch of the day-ahead and bilateral spot markets in early 2027, and the finalisation of the institutional framework for market operation.
Participants underscored that regional integration is no longer an ambition but a practical reality essential to economic development, with Guinea positioning itself as a central energy hub.
