By Hauwa Ali
The Senegalese subsidiary of the German consulting group Gauff
Engineering is training 247 young people in the installation of solar
photovoltaic systems as part of the project to electrify 300 villages in
Senegal.
The initiative will accelerate the electrification of the West African country,
which is planning universal access to electricity by 2025.
The training, initiated by the Senegalese subsidiary of the German
consulting group Gauff Engineering, was financed by Kreditanstaltfür
Wiederaufbau (KfW), the German development agency, through its
subsidiary KfW-IPEX Bank.
The trainees, 71 of whom were women, were trained in the operation,
maintenance and remote supervision of solar photovoltaic mini-power
stations. Among the beneficiaries were also forty executives from the
Senegalese Rural Electrification Agency (ASER) and the Moroccan-
Senegalese Company for Electricity (COMASEL).
These institutions are involved in the implementation of the Electrification
Project for 300 villages in Senegal, which aims to combat the energy gap in
this West African country. The project has already enabled the installation
of 150 solar photovoltaic mini-power stations in the regions of Kaffrine,
Kaolack, Fatick (in the centre), Louga, Saint-Louis (in the north) and Kolda
(in the south), according to Lutz Ekhoff, the Managing Director of Gauff
Engeneering.
According to the Managing Director of the Senegalese Rural Electrification
Agency, Baba Diallo, a total of 3,000 households in 44 villages have been
connected to the national electricity grid as part of this project.
“Access to sustainable energy must be considered a right and a means of
economic, social and ecological promotion,” he said.