A delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) headed by the program manager of the Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) of ECOWAS, Mr. Bah Saho, and the Director General of Energy in Benin, Dr. Sakariyou Mahman, visited Songhai Centre this Wednesday, May 11, 2016.

This visit is part of the ECOWAS and Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) workshop on sustainable management of wood energy in Cotonou, from 9 to 11 May 2016. The purpose of the visit, said Sakariyou Mahman, is to concretely introduce participants to the Cotonou workshop, to how wood energy is managed sustainably at Centre Songhai in the integrated system. And with great admiration, visitors could see for themselves the practical realities of the Songhai Centre. Not only in the field of renewable energy, but also in all other areas of activity of Songhai. The idea is to be inspired to better cope with the many problems of deforestation in their countries.

At the end of the visit, Kizito Nabie, Director of Forests and Reforestation of Burkina Faso, said he is impressed not only by the large number of installations of Songhai renewable energy platform, but above all, by the plastic waste recycling unit. He promised to organize a mission to Benin to visit the center again, in more details, as he noted, “you have all that contributes to the improvement of food”. For Mr. Saho from ECREEE, Songhai Centre is a practical example that everyone should have the opportunity to visit and see in reality what the integrated approach is, and be inspired by this model for the development of Africa.

The imbalance of ecosystems, soil poverty, global warming are the main consequences of deforestation. The Cotonou workshop on the margins of which the visit was conducted, aims at sharing information and building the capacity of stakeholders in the wood energy sector to integrate effective and modern approaches in the wood energy value chain, to ensure environmental sustainability. 

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