REEVALUATING THE ENERGY ISSUES OF WEST AFRICA

Abstract

Prior to the worldwide bottlenecks in the supply of energy, the rather low-cost and bountiful supply of energy assets was well-thought-out as a solitary vital issue accountable for the active development of the global economy. The know-how of manufacture and ingestion configurations in both the industrialized and emerging countries is so reliant on energy that the least imbalance in the world energy market yields disturbing special results on their economies. The fifteen member nations of the West African sub-region (constituting the Economic Community of West African States - ECOWAS), contemporary confronted with high costs for both traditional and imported commercial energy, is considered as one of the poorest regions in the world. By the year 2030, the 2015 value of the population and their demand for coal and electricity will increase by 35.55%, 278.80% and 263.79% respectively. The rapid growth of the population has key repercussions on the energy needs of the West African sub-region. A combination of both national and regional rigorous and cooperative efforts towards energy resource development and utilization is key amongst the numerous solutions put forward in tackling the present day ECO WAS energy issues in this study.