Transforming The Gambia Electricity Sub-sector: Strategic Roadmap 2021-2040
The regional and global energy landscape is ever evolving, necessitating the need to update the Gambia’s high-level energy sector plans and strategies to account for new market realities and opportunities. The 2021 update of the strategic electricity roadmap exemplifies the Gambia government’s drive and commitment to modernize the electricity sub-sector by building on the gains achieved over so many decades, but also to capitalize on the opportunity for low-cost imports available in the emerging West Africa Power Pool (WAPP) regional electricity market, and the falling costs of renewable technologies, particularly solar PV, which is identified as one of the least cost renewable energy technologies in The Gambia.
The strategic roadmap projects the electricity demand up to 2040, and establishes the medium and long-term investment requirements in generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure necessary to meet the national electricity demand forecast while meeting specific sector policy objectives such as the President’s ambitious target for universal electricity access by 2025, increased domestic generation, low-cost import and export possibilities, and the systematic deployment of renewable energy in the electricity generation mix.
The roadmap represents the strategic masterplan for the electricity sub-sector that is fully consistent with the energy policy and macroeconomic, investment and climate-related policies of the government of The Gambia and embodies the high-level vision of the Government for the development of the sector over the next 20 years.
The successful implementation of the roadmap will require collaborative efforts from government and all national stakeholders, institutional strengthening, and a holistic and efficient coordination of development partners’ interventions in the energy sector. This will be supported by public and private sector participation, utility reforms and a robust regulatory framework reinforced by effective and consistent policies.
The full document of the Strategic Roadmap 2021-2040 is available on the download link under publications: https://www.mope.gm/downloads
