Opportunities and Constraints of Scaling Up Electricity Access in the Gambia

Abstract

: The availability of adequate, reliable, affordable and sustainable energy is a critical milestone in the socio-economic development of any country. In the Gambia less than half of the population (42%) has access to electricity; over 90% are still dependent on solid biomass for cooking and heating. This has significantly hampered development and intensified poverty. Thus, a top priority for the government today is to scale up electricity access in the country especially in the rural areas. To fulfill this objective, the government has taken a number of policies and strategies all gear towards increasing national electricity access in the country. Implementation of these initiatives in a form of projects through Least Cost Power Development Plan (LCPDP) strategy have yield significant opportunities in the attainment of national energy policy target of 2030 by increasing the number of household and businesses with access to electricity. Notwithstanding, this quest is equally face with constraints in the process.These substantial risk constraints include technical, institutional, policy and financial challenges. Therefore, this article conclude that in order to achieve a reliable and effective supply of the total electricity need within the prevailing condition, the Government should encourage Public Private Arrangement of power supply with indigenize energy entities who can met the generation capacity of 50-100MW.The results further suggest that NAWEC and the Government should sign a performance contractin addition to the already signed service contract. Also, the government should look beyond these short to medium‐term measures and diversify into the long term energy mix measures to include renewal into the grid system.