Buchanan City, Grand Bassa County – A shipment of business meters for customer installations under a €42 million regional project arrived in Buchanan, bringing the European Union-funded initiative to provide dependable energy to three coastal and southeast Liberian cities closer to its first live connections.
MBH Power Nigeria Limited, the company in charge of storage and logistics for the city’s portion of the scheme, supervised the offloading of the single-phase and three-phase split meters at the Buchanan warehouse. In addition to extending distribution services throughout Buchanan and the adjacent villages, the meters will be utilised to link homes, businesses, and public institutions.
The shipment is a component of a €42 million EU package that is being implemented in collaboration with the Liberian government to increase access to energy in Buchanan, Greenville, and Barclayville. The meters’ arrival and storage, according to officials, signalled progress toward the project’s electrification goals. According to an EU spokesman, the EU is still dedicated to helping Liberia’s government and citizens develop the nation’s energy industry. More people having access to energy will boost the economy, enhance public services, and open doors for sustainable development.
The supply of meters is a significant indicator of a more significant change in EU funding in Liberia. Brussels has shifted from funding individual, charitable projects to integrated packages that include transport, energy, governance, and service delivery into a unified development initiative. In the southeast, rural electrification is currently a top priority for EU assistance, along with roads, digital infrastructure, public financial management reform, and support for civil society.
In its 2024 midterm assessment, the European Commission allocated €117 million to Liberia for the years 2025 to 2027. Of that amount, €40 million was set aside for sustainable growth through the improvement and preservation of natural resources, which is the same strategic line under which the EU places its electrification work in the southeast. The funding comes through Global Europe, formerly known as the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument, which currently oversees the bloc’s external cooperation and has a total global allocation of €79.5 billion.
The timing is crucial for a region that has long been considered the most remote in the nation. Liberia’s southern cities have never received power in any dependable manner, and the lack of electricity has affected everything from business to health care. Barclayville in Grand Kru County and Greenville in Sinoe County are located deep in a region that, according to official assessments, is shut off from most of the country during the six-month rainy season due to poor roads.
Nearly 60% of rural Liberians, according to the World Bank, lack access to an all-weather road, which raises costs, isolates clinics, and makes it more difficult to provide essential services. Instead of portraying the electrification project in the southeast as energy for its own sake, the EU has pitched it as part of a bigger package meant to expand the state’s reach and better incorporate remote areas into the national economy. How quickly residents receive power will depend on how quickly this deployment takes place.
