Government has assured of reductions in the cost of electricity to help drive its industrialisation agenda in the private sector.
Ghana currently has one of the highest per kilowatt cost of electricity to industry in the West African sub-region, despite some 11 per cent reductions in electricity cost since 2017.
“We are determined to further reduce the cost of electricity. Energy is the lifeblood of every economy. We cannot talk about economic transformation through industrialisation without anchoring the discussion on cost of energy,” Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo noted on Day 2 of the Ghana Economic Forum(GEF).
“Without reliable, adequate and competitive power supply, resetting the economy beyond COVID-19 will be a mirage,” he added.
Outlining what he called the trilogy of energy supply, the Senior Minister explained that there is a need to create huge demand for energy by making power available for industry at a cost that will not be expensive compared to other West African countries.
This, he said, can only be achieved if government enters into power agreemnts that will not unnecessarily increase the unit cost of power.
Referring to the power sector crisis that hit the country in 2015 and 2016, Mr Osafo Maafo stated that government is now very careful when signing private power sector agreements which have the potential to increase the country’s financial burden.
He explained that the Akufo-Addo government after assuming office had to take pragmatic steps to help reduce the cost of energy by renegotiating energy contracts from ‘Take or Pay’ basis to ‘Take and Pay’.
Connecting the need for reliable power supply to government’s overall growth agenda, Mr Osafo Maafo said the One District, One Factory initiative is heavily hinged on affordable power supply to attract investors – recalling that one of the benchmarks investors have always assessed before establishing a business in Ghana is the cost of power, which is unfortunately high in Ghana compered to its peers.
