Chairman of the ECOWAS Parliament Committee on Agriculture, Senator Ali Ndume, has urged member states to dedicate at least five per cent of their annual budgets to rural development and renewable energy projects, as lawmakers and energy experts debated innovative financing models needed to tackle West Africa’s energy crisis.
Ndume made the call during a joint committee meeting of the ECOWAS Parliament in Dakar, where discussions focused on how to mobilise greater investment in renewable energy and expand electricity access to millions of people in underserved rural communities across the region.
Presenting a paper titled “Innovative High-Impact Financing Models for Renewable Energy: What Strategic Choices Should Be Made in Response to the Energy Crisis? — Case Study: Senegal,” the Director-General of Senegal’s National Agency for Renewable Energy (ANER), Diouma Kobor, said West Africa must move beyond isolated energy projects and develop bankable, interconnected portfolios capable of attracting private sector investment.
Kobor identified rising electricity demand, dependence on imported fossil fuels, grid instability, and unequal access to energy as key drivers of the region’s energy challenges, stressing the need for a new financing framework.
According to him, Senegal is projected to obtain about 28 per cent of its electricity generation capacity from renewable sources by 2025 and plans to increase this to 40 per cent by 2030, supported by €2.5 billion pledged under the country’s Just Energy Transition Partnership.
He advocated blended financing models combining grants, concessional loans, commercial debt, and private equity to reduce investment risks and lower electricity costs.
Kobor also called for the integration of solar, wind, gas, energy storage, and efficiency solutions, while leveraging ECOWAS and the West African Power Pool frameworks to develop regional energy corridors.
To accelerate investment, he proposed the establishment of a regional guarantee mechanism and an innovative energy infrastructure fund to de-risk renewable energy projects and reduce the cost of capital across member states.
He further recommended the development of “smart energy corridors” linking transport, agriculture, and energy infrastructure, arguing that coordinated regional investments could position ECOWAS as a leader in Africa’s clean energy transition.
Also speaking on the theme “Financing Renewable Energy in Rural Areas: Challenges and Opportunities,” Maimouna Sidibe of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development disclosed that renewable energy accounts for only four per cent of the bank’s energy portfolio, despite growing demand in rural communities.
Sidibe said the bank had traditionally focused on financing large-scale grid projects, regional interconnections, and mature infrastructure with predictable revenues, leaving many smaller renewable energy initiatives underserved.
She identified weak project preparation, poor bankability, small project sizes, regulatory bottlenecks, and limited access to guarantees as major obstacles preventing investments from reaching rural areas.
“The challenge is not the absence of opportunities, but making projects financeable and bankable,” she said.
According to her, EBID’s 2026–2030 strategy seeks to expand support for solar mini-grids, off-grid systems, hybrid power plants, small hydropower projects, and productive energy solutions aimed at stimulating rural economies.
Sidibe added that blended finance mechanisms and the ECOWAS Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Facility would help attract private investment and improve electricity access in underserved communities.
Contributing to the discussion, Ndume argued that rural electrification through renewable energy was financially achievable for governments across the region.
Referring to figures presented during the session, he noted that a project costing about $7.6 million to provide solar photovoltaic systems to 50 communities amounted to less than $1 million per community.
“For less than one million dollars, you can modernise a rural area,” Ndume said.
He maintained that investments in rural electrification would boost agriculture, improve security, stimulate local economies, and reduce migration to urban centres.
“Once you do this, you are bringing rural development, security and agriculture. People will have no reason to leave their communities because development will come to them,” he added.
The senator urged ECOWAS governments to earmark at least five per cent of their annual budgets for rural development and renewable energy initiatives, saying the benefits would become evident within a few years.
Despite the limited powers of the regional parliament, he challenged lawmakers to advocate stronger financial commitments to the sector.
“We may not have teeth, but we can bite,” Ndume said, pledging to champion similar proposals in Nigeria.
Also speaking, Vice Chairman of the ECOWAS Parliament Committee on Infrastructure, Ahmed Munir, called for policies that would promote local manufacturing and industrialisation alongside renewable energy investments.
Munir argued that climate financing should support the development of industries within West Africa through partnerships between foreign manufacturers and local companies.
He also advocated harmonised technical standards and stronger regional coordination to prevent fragmented approaches that could weaken the bloc’s bargaining position.
According to him, since much of the climate financing available to the region comes from external partners, ECOWAS countries must negotiate strategically to ensure such funds contribute to local value addition and sustainable development.
Participants at the meeting agreed that although West Africa possesses vast renewable energy resources, financing gaps, investment risks, and weak institutional frameworks continue to limit efforts to provide affordable electricity to millions of people, particularly in rural areas.
They stressed that stronger regional cooperation, innovative financing mechanisms, and sustained political commitment will be critical to achieving universal
energy access and accelerating economic development across the sub-region.
