Puntland Excluded from the “Somali Electricity Sector Recovery Project”

[Deeq A.]

The Federal Government of Somalia excluded Puntland State from the Somalia Electricity Recovery Project.

Mogadishu (PP News Desk) — The World Bank will commit $150 million to the “Electricity Sector Recovery Project for Somalia is to increase access to lower cost and cleaner electricity supply in project areas and to reestablish the electricity supply industry.“

The project selected Mogadishu and Hargeysa as the “major load centers”. Major electricity suppliers in Mogadishu and Hargeisa will benefit from the project aimed to provide consumers with clean water and affordable electricity.

Somaliland Adminstration boasts a separate “national development plan” whereas Puntland State’s electricity development needs gets subsumed under Somalia National Development Plan 2020 to 2024, which stresses that “Somalia has the highest electricity charges in the world and, as a result, Somali citizens use charcoal and wood, decimating the forest stock”.

The World Bank-funded project is aligned with “Power Master Plan … to increase energy production, increase the supply of renewable energy, and for government to establish regulatory authorities and a legislative framework to improve the market efficiency.”

Puntland State, the first autonomous administration in Somalia, has been excluded from Somali Electricity Sector Recovery Project, a decision that will drive a political wedge between the Federal Government of Somalia and the Garowe-based administration that supported a change of administration in Mogadishu earlier this year.

© Puntland Post, 2022

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