A leading Ghanaian power plant builder has urged Ghana to focus on increasing power per capita from the dismal 53 to 500 if it is to industrialize.
Fred Asamany, believes that the lack of vision in the leadership of this country is the primary reason for the mediocre state of the electricity and all stakeholders must get together to work on the deficit.
“Energy in all its forms is the engine of growth in any economy and all our past and present leaders, with the exception of Kwame Nkrumah, have tinkered with this issue without any clear cut initiatives from our leaders to solve this problem.”
According to him, Ghana needs about 12500 megawatts of electricity to industrialize. However, the country has only 2884 installed capacity with the current production around 1313 megawatts.
“As at 28th July 2014 the installed generation capacity in Ghana is 2844 MW however the available capacity is only 1313 MW yet we require 12,500 MW to industrialize.”
Ghana requires 500 watts/capita to take a significant step towards industrialization, equivalent to 12500 MW (population of 25million x 500 watts).
Currently the installed generation capacity in Ghana is 2844MW. The deficit for industrialised status is therefore approximately 9700 MW. Generation infrastructure is approximately $1.5m per MW. Ghana therefore needs to invest $14.5bn to come up to speed.
On the management of the electricity sector, he says “as long as VRA/ECG/GRIDCO are run as purely civil service organizations, we cannot expect anything better from their financial operations. We must introduce private sector management attitudes into their operations.”
Click here to read a full analysis of Ghana’s power sector.
By: Kojo Akoto Boateng/citifmonline.com/Ghana