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Veep calls for strategic investment to achieve universal energy

By
Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA

Accra, Oct.22, GNA –
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on Tuesday opened the third ECOWAS
Sustainable Energy Forum, with a call on stakeholders to reflect on the way
forward towards implementing strategic regional sustainable energy projects to
ensure universal energy coverage by 2030.

He noted that the
policy for sustainable renewable energy was adopted by the Assembly of Heads of
State and Governments in July 2013, therefore, it was high time African leaders
and stakeholders in the energy sector implement actionable projects and
programmes to achieve the targets.

He underlined the need
for the African continent to remove all the institutional and infrastructure
impediments and solicit the right investments towards achieving the Sustainable
Development Goal (SDG) seven.

Vice President
Bawumia made the call when he delivered a keynote address at the third edition
of ECOWAS Sustainable Energy Forum and Exhibition, organised by the ECOWAS
Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Energy in Accra.

The three-day forum
was on the theme: “Achieving Sustainable Energy Targets in ECOWAS,” aimed
at promoting exchange of ideas, cooperation and investments for renewable
energy solutions in the sub-region and the Continent at large.

It also intended to
promote regulatory framework that would attract the requisite private sector
investments for sustainable renewable energy in Africa.

The event attracted
government officials, policy-makers and civil society organisations within the
ECOWAS region and development partners, including the European Union, German
Development Corporation, United Nations Development Programme and the Diplomatic
Community.

Vice President
Bawumia said the Government of Ghana enacted Renewable Energy Act in 2011 to
create the enabling environment to attract the requisite investments into the
energy sector.

He added that an
Energy Master Plan had been constituted that would guide government’s renewable
energy policy direction, thus, enumerated a number of projects being
implemented to increase the supply of renewable energy in Ghana, including
electricity transmission lines, mini grids, and solar panels, noting that the
nation had been supply power to Benin, Togo and Burkina Faso, while efforts
were underway to export power to Mali and Niger in the Saharian region.

Mr William Owuraku
Aidoo, a Deputy Minister of Energy in charge of power, for his part, said Ghana
had committed itself to unconditionally reduce the rate of greenhouse gas
emission by undertaking mitigation measures in the energy sector.

They included the
scaling up of the penetration of renewable energy in the electricity generation
mix, promotion of cleaner rural household lighting to replace kerosene, wood as
main lighting fuel and promoting cleaner cooking solutions.

Mr Aidoo said the
nation enacted the Renewable Energy Act to create the enabling environment for
attracting private sector investment, noting that, it had resulted in the
influx of the private sector in the integration of utility scale renewable
energy in both residential and non-residential facilities.

The Deputy Minister
said the nation’s current electrification rate stood at 85% and was committed
to achieving 90% universal access by 2020.

To achieve the
target, he said government would deploy additional 55 mini grids 35,000 solar
home systems and one million solar lanterns in hard to reach communities where
electricity grid cannot be extended within the next five years.

Mr Aidoo said
government would continue to promote the use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)
for cooking, adding that, plans were far advanced to change the current
refilling model to the cylinder recirculation model.

Mr Mahama Kappiah,
the Executive Director of the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and
Sustainable Energy, the convenor of the forum, in his welcome address, said
currently, there was less than 600 clean energy mini grids in operation in the
sub-region, which fell short of the 60,000 clean energy mini grids target for
the sub-region.

He called for robust
to attract the requisite investments to achieve the target in order to reduce
carbon emissions that negatively affects the climate.

GNA

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