Delegates from nine African countries begin discussion on Eastern Africa Power Pool
By Yinka Adeyemi, Communication Officer, ECA
21 February 2004

Energy experts from nine African countries today began a week-long meeting in Addis Ababa to finalize a memorandum of understanding for the launch of the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP).

EAPP joins other subregional power pools which are already in force in Southern Africa, western Africa, central Africa and northern Africa.

Its objectives are to secure power supply for the subregion; increase access rate of the population to power; reduce electricity production costs; provide efficient coordination in power production and create, in the framework of NEPAD, a conducive environment for investment in energy.

The experts are from Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

In the next two days, the experts will discuss a draft intergovernmental memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the power pool arrangement. The MOU covers issues such as members'' obligations, organizational structure, resources, arbitration and enforcement.

It will be submitted to the countries'' ministers of energy who will meet here on Thursday to review, adopt and sign the MOU and formally launch the EAPP.

The meeting is hosted by the Government of Ethiopia and co-sponsored by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the African Union (AU), the Union of Producers, Transporters and Distributors of Electric Power in Africa (UPDEA) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).