A World Bank-financed regional power project connected about 43,090 households in 400 localities in The Gambia, giving 344,720 people new or improved electricity access, the ECOWAS Commission said on November 3 after the project's final steering committee meeting in Abuja. The $225mn project, which also covers Guinea-Bissau and Mali, closes on December 31, 2026.
Analysis: The Gambia accounts for about four in five of the project's 490 electrified localities and more than two-thirds of the nearly 500,000 people it reached, by our calculation. The Gambia's gap is mostly rural: access stood at 45% in rural areas against more than 97% in Banjul and Kanifing in 2024, according to the National Energy Compact as cited by Ecofin Agency. The new customers add demand to a grid where thermal plants produced 87% of domestic power that year. The release named no follow-on financing for The Gambia before the project closes on December 31.
Source: ECOWAS Commission, ECOWAS Commission press release on the final steering committee meeting of the Regional Electricity Access Project (Abuja, November 2-3, 2026), distributed by APO Group, Project life to November 2026 and Six years to November 2026 and Project total and Closing date; Ecofin Agency, Ecofin Agency, 'Gambia Bets on Grid Expansion to Close Its Electricity Access Gap', September 30, 2026 (citing The Gambia's National Energy Compact), 2024