TRANSCO CLSG

In 1982, the Heads of States of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) agreed to put in place a regional energy policy in order to promote a regional energy market and to optimize resources in West Africa. Subsequently, in 1999 the West African Power Pool (WAPP) was created and its Master Plan was put in place in 2000 with a view to provide electrical energy at competitive and affordable prices in the West Africa region to ensure e social and economic development.

Within its Master Plan, WAPP planned to accelerate several regional interconnection line projects including a transmission line to interconnect the States of Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinée (CLSG). The CLSG Project is a multinational investment operation and is financed by 4 donors namely, the World Bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB), the KfW and the African Development Bank (AfDB). The four beneficiary countries have provided counterpart contributions for the payments of Resettlement Action Plans (RAP) and Interest accrued during construction (IDC).

In 2012, therefore, a Treaty was signed by the Heads of State of the CLSG countries to establish a Special Purpose Company called ‘TRANSCO CLSG’ which stands for Transmission Company Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinée. The objective of the supranational company is to implement the project, specifically to finance, construct, operate, maintain, own and develop the Interconnection Line among the Member States. Following the signature of the International Treaty governing the CLSG Project, the General Secretariat of WAPP in compliance with its prerogatives as Secretariat of the Treaty initiated the process of establishing the governance bodies of the project as outlined in the Treaty.

TRANSCO CLSG, a Regional Transmission Company (RTC) set up under the West African Power Pool (WAPP) by an International Treaty signed and ratified among Cote D’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea has been given the mandate to finance, construct, own, operate and further develop the Cote D’Ivoire-Liberia-Sierra Leone-Guinea (CLSG) Interconnection power transmission line with the aim of establishing a regional electricity market in West Africa through the appropriate development and implementation of key infrastructures so that all ECOWAS member states are given access to economic energy resources.