GHANA- A DEVELOPING AFRICAN TIGER AND THE ENERGY NEXUS

The Mills administration added 376 Megawatts of Power supply to the National Grid in 3 years and have so far connected 1,700 communities to electricity supply. This has significantly increased the load on the Volta River Authority [VRA]and the Independent Power Providers [IPP] to meet the rather growing volume of supply without any power reserve system, more like a hand-to-mouth kind of employment scenario. We consume all that we generate and even have huge shortages due to the absence of power reserve systems that can act as buffer stock anytime there is shortage in generation and supply.
The greater the demand, the supply falls, according to basic economic principles and the market forces fix the price. We cannot pay full cost for electricity and what we need to do as a nation is to invest heavily into power supply and a sustainable distribution system.
In Accra alone, 30 new power substations have been completed to ensure that the capacity of expanding communities are catered for. Gas supply to the Asogli Plnat remains a challenge and until a permanent solution is found to that, we will still experience such intermittent power outages.
The Bui Dam project will open the first turbine by September this year if all works according to plan and this will significantly improve supply.
President Mills returned from the USA recently with a 2nd Compact of the Millennium Challenge Account which is to be invested into energy generation and supply.
According to Prof. Elizabeth Ardayfio-Schandorf in her Inaugural lecture delivered on September 16, 2004 at the University of Ghana, she posits that per capita energy consumption in Africa accounts for only 26.8 while China alone is 38. with the USA hitting 334. I am afraid our economic growth as a nation would be retarded if we do not find a permanent solution or near permanent one to our energy needs. In her Book, "Energy and the development Nexus-The realities, Challenges and Opportunities for the Future", Prof. E Ardafio-Schandorf argues, "..without access to energy, and opportunity to formal education and good health, the well-being of many people in developing countries and Africa remains doubtful".
As we debate, there are hospitals without power supply not to mention the high cost of energy supply and consumption even by MMDAs.
That is a major challenge uncorrelated to what government wins power or not. It is a real challenge we must deal with as a nation. Meanwhile President Mills continues to win the hearts of many people including market women with the successes we have chalked up under his leadership in a better Ghana in spite of the challenges.