Regional power integration is increasingly critical as West African countries seek to expand access, stabilise grids, and reduce electricity costs. The West African Power Pool (WAPP) provides the framework for interconnected systems and regional power trade, but progress depends on close coordination between governments, utilities, and the private sector.

Recorded at WAECS25 in Ghana in partnership with The Electricity Hub, H.E. Honourable Charles Umehai, Deputy Minister of Mines & Energy of Liberia, and Arnaud Gouet, Senior Vice President at Release by Scatec, discuss how policy alignment and private-sector delivery are advancing regional integration. The conversation examines cross-border interconnection, utility reform, and the partnerships needed to strengthen reliability and scale affordable power across West Africa.

As West Africa seeks scalable solutions to close its persistent energy access gap, governments and industry leaders are rethinking the role of off-grid and decentralised power. With grid expansion struggling to keep pace with population growth and rising demand, mini-grids, solar home systems, and captive power plants are becoming central to electrification efforts. Solar has transformed rural access, yet questions remain about long-term sustainability, the role of gas as a balancing fuel, and the commercial viability of decentralised systems for communities and investors.

Dr. Abba Aliyu, Managing Director and CEO of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) of Nigeria, examines how off-grid technologies can power West Africa's future and what it will take to create resilient, investment-ready markets across the region.

From scaling productive-use energy and catalysing local manufacturing to strengthening industrial growth through captive power and balancing renewables with gas in decentralised systems, he explores how off-grid solutions can evolve from stop-gap measures into a core pillar of West Africa's long-term energy strategy.

Recorded in partnership with The Electricity Hub in Ghana during the West Africa Energy Cooperation Summit (WA-ECS), this episode captures a timely discussion at the heart of West Africa's evolving power market.

Against a backdrop of shifting development finance priorities and tighter global liquidity, we sit down with Roger Stuart, Head of the Regional Hub at the European Investment Bank, to explore how development finance institutions, commercial banks and domestic investors are adapting to finance the region's next generation of power projects.

From blended finance structures and local-currency solutions to the growing influence of pension and sovereign wealth funds, this conversation unpacks what a more resilient, locally anchored financing ecosystem could mean for West Africa's energy transition.