Africa-Press – Senegal. The Senegalese government has set up an emergency electrification program for an amount of 516 billion CFA francs, an amount representing the total cost of the additional investments necessary to reduce the electricity gap. universal access to electricity, said Friday the Secretary General of the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, Cheikh Niane.
« This program is a complement to ongoing projects at the level of Senelec, the Senegalese Agency for Rural Electrification, the Emergency Program for Community Development, the Emergency Program for the Modernization of Border Roads and Territories, the Millennium Challenge Account with the support of our development partners, including the World Bank, the European Union, the French Development Agency, the KFW, the African Development Bank, the US government, etc. -He underlines.
The first priority phase of this program is being implemented with the various structures concerned, he pointed out while chairing an information and sharing workshop with the Energy and Mineral Resources Commission of the National Assembly.
According to him, “the government of Senegal has taken the decision to harmonize the electricity tariffs applied by private rural electrification concessionaires with a more attractive tariff from Senelec, with the aim of restoring equality of loan- name of the users in front of the public electricity service ».
“This proactive measure by the government has reduced barriers and contributed to a considerable improvement in the rate of access to electricity in rural areas,” he said.
He pointed out that « in addition to the electrification of households, the ministry, through the National Agency for Renewable Energy, attaches particular importance to the electrification, by solar means, of community infrastructures, such as schools, health posts, religious establishments, national parks, guard posts, etc. ».
« Thus, more than 1,100 infrastructures have been built for this purpose, helping to raise the educational level and the medical level of beneficiaries in rural areas, » he noted.
The Secretary General of the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy recalled that “the second phase of the solar public lighting program involving the installation of 115,000 streetlights was launched towards the end of 2022”. According to him, it aims to « reduce the public lighting bills of local authorities and improve the living conditions of the populations as well as productive security ».
This project completes the first phase of the program of 50,000 streetlights, the success of which was hailed by all the beneficiaries, in particular the mayors.
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