The Institute for Energy Security (IES) has expressed doubt over President Akufo-Addo’s promise to ensure 100% electricity coverage in Ghana by the end of his second term.
The President, Nana Akufo-Addo, in his inaugural address in Parliament, on January 7, 2021, said his government will be committing enough resources to ensure power supply is extended to all communities that have not been connected to the national grid.
But the IES has doubts about this promise.
According to IES, this goal will be difficult to achieve looking at the rate at which the country has received electricity coverage in the previous years.
“Though the IES is pleased with government’s renewed resolve to act on this mandate, it remains cautious in hope as recent history does not instil confidence,” a press statement signed by a Research Analyst at the Institute, Fritz Moses said.
The Institute believes government needs to make the “necessary investments and regulatory mechanisms to ensure a fulfilment of the promise”.
Electricity access over the years
From 2010 to 2016, Ghana’s electricity access had an annual growth rate of 2.7 percent extending national access to 83 percent.
However, the country from 2016 to 2020 has experienced the lowest growth in electricity access over the last two decades.
The annual electricity access growth in the last four years stands roughly at 0.6 percent, bringing the national electricity access to just above 85 percent.
It is for this reason that the target for the National Electrification Scheme which was earlier projected for 2020 has been extended to 2025.
The IES, referring to these figures then suggested that if the government is really determined to achieve its goal, it “must work to increase electricity access by at least 3.5 percent annually from now, up on to 2025. The growth must also be with the renewable energy sources as towns without electricity are in difficult-to-reach areas, mainly lakesides and islands”.
Furthermore, “government must ramp up its renewable energy drive from the current 1 percent in the national electricity mix to the 10 percent target from the Renewable Energy Act 2011 if it is certain on this task.”
Click here to read the full statement.