The Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission (LERC) has been ranked 10th in the 2022 Electricity Regulatory Index (ERI) for Africa. The LERC accomplished this feat in less than a year after it was ranked 37th in the 2021 ERI for Africa report.
The 2022 ERI report covered 43 countries in Africa, with 45 confirmed regulatory authorities and institutions participating in the assessment process, which was based on well-developed electricity regulatory frameworks, the capacity to exercise the necessary regulatory oversight and authority on the regulated entities, and the ability to achieve measurable outcomes.
The report is the fifth edition, and it measures the level of development of electricity sector regulatory frameworks in African countries and the capacity of regulatory authorities to effectively carry out their relevant functions and duties against international standards and best practices.
The ERI is a composite index composed of three pillars: Regulatory Governance Index (RGI), Regulatory Substance Index (RSI) and Regulatory Outcome Index (ROI).
The RGI assesses the institutional and legal design of the regulatory framework, within which the regulator’s mandate is established. The RSI evaluates how well electricity sector regulators are carrying out their mandate by developing and implementing the practices and processes that affect regulatory outcomes, while the ROI measures, from the perspectives of distribution utility companies and/or consumers, the degree to which the regulator has a positive or negative impact on the sector.
The Chairman of the Board of Commissioners (BoC), Dr. Lawrence D. Sekajipo, reacting to the report, described the index rating as a testament to the quality of work the Commission has been doing in the last two years to reform the electricity sector in Liberia.
Dr. Sekajipo thanked the Government of Liberia (GOL), the United States government through the Millennium Corporation, European Union (EU), ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA), stakeholders, and development partners for their continued support since the creation of the commission.
“This ranking is a motivation, and the LERC is ready and prepared to move further up the rankings and become a leader in electricity regulation on the African continent and the world at large,” the Chairman of the BoC asserted.
In another development, the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA) has conducted an Analysis of Licensing Procedures in ECOWAS member states, in which Liberia was commended for having well defined, complete and publicized licensing frameworks, serving as one of the best examples among the analyzed West African countries. The ERERA analysis concluded that Liberia’s licensing process may serve as one of the model processes that could be used by other ECOWAS member states should they want to develop their process from the scratch or improve it; and describes Liberia’s import license and its terms and conditions as a valued model.