Dr Aja Isatou Njie-Saidy, Vice President and Secretary of State for Women’s Affairs has said that some of the northern parts of Upper River Region were not found to be technically feasible for the Rural Electrification Program extension mainly due too long distance from the power supply sources.

Thus, they are not economically and financially viable, as the villages did not have the minimum customers’ base and hence could not benefit from the first phase of the Rural Electrification Programme.

Responding to questions from several members of the National Assembly on Tuesday on matter concerning the rural electrification project, she said that technical feasibility, economical and financial viability were conditions to be fulfilled in order to attract funding from financing institutions. Notwithstanding, she said the Upper River Region will be considered under subsequent phase of the Rural Electrification Program.

On why the power station in Juffureh is not supplying streetlights in Albreda, VP Njie-Saidy said the power station in Juffureh is designed for supply of water only to the community. As a result, the installed generator is not designed for continuous running, but for limited number of hours per day and also the supply of streetlight is only considered upon request during national cultural festivals such as Roots Home Coming Festival.

Asked whether they are also considering to open additional NAWEC cash offices to ease long distance travelling at customers as the commissioning of the 5 provincial power stations under the Rural Electrification Project and the Provision of cash power machines have made electricity service accessible to the rural communities, VP Njie-Saidy said that Nawec is aware of the problem its customers are having in accessing commercial services due to limited Revenue offices being operated. For this reason she added, five additional revenue offices are to be opened at Janjangbureh, Kuntaur Madina and Kaur in Central River Region, Fatoto in URR, and Kerewan in NBR before the end of the year. She added that other three locations like Salikenni in NBR, Gambissara and Sabi in URR are also being considered.

On why electrification distribution in Lower Nuimi is limited to only Essau and Barra areas unlike Kerewan where it covers a larger area, VP Njie-Saidy noted that the terms of reference (TOR) for the implementation of the first phase of the Rural Electrification Program was limited to 80 KM radius from Mansakonko and Bansang with Barra-Essau treated as a special case due to its strategic location and potential as a major growth center.

Madam Njie-Saidy added that it was envisaged under the TOR that there were to be only two central provincial power stations located in Bansang and Mansakonko. “However, the study showed that this option was not technically feasible and economically/financially viable. This is the reason for six isolated power stations with extended transmission and distribution networks.

As a result of the fact that Barra-Essau was treated as a special case during the formulation of the concept for the rural electrification program in 1993 under the electrification master plan, the scope was only limited to the greater Barra area. Despite the above, four villages namely; Barra, Essau, Mayamba and Kanuma are connected to the Barra sub-system. The other beneficiaries under the Kerewan sub-system are within the 80 KM radius and fulfill all other conditions under the TOR ie; population density, distance from the supply center, electrical load etc” she concluded.