EU boosts capacity of Lands, Mines and Energy Ministry’s Electricity Bureau

The Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Liberia, Tiina Intelmann, has announced that the EU is funding 4 international experts to help boost the capacity of the Bureau of Electricity and Renewable Energy at the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy. Speaking in Monrovia on Thursday, 21 January, she welcomed the start of this technical assistance project, which is expected to last for up to four years.

The EU envoy explained that in the first phase of the project one of the experts will work as international Director of the Bureau of Electricity and Renewable Energy. The Director will provide technical support to the Assistant Minister for Energy, alongside a national Deputy Director. Three further senior experts in Electricity Regulation will be joined by 3 locally-recruited experts to jumpstart the Electricity Regulatory Function. In 1 to 2 years, the Ambassador indicated, the regulatory function will develop into an independent Agency in compliance with the Electricity Law of Liberia.

Ambassador Intelmann added that the EU’s intervention aims to provide significant additional technical capacity to reorganize and make the Department of Energy of the Ministry efficient in addressing the challenges the electricity sector faces. In this way it complements the significant grant funding the EU is providing to support the Liberia Electricity Corporation and the Rural and Renewable Energy Agency – the Ministry’s implementing partners – in their endeavours to respectively connect the whole of Liberia to the electric grid and to provide improved access to modern energy services in the rural areas of the country.-Press release