Thursday, October 2, 2014

Ghana to export electricity to Nigeria

Ghana is planning to export thousands of megawatts of electricity to Nigeria, Ivory Coast and other neighbouring countries that have power deficit, sources say here.

Nigeria's Punch newspaper on Thursday quotes Ghanaian President, Mr. John Mahama, saying at the Africa Global Business and Economic Forum in Dubai, UAE on Wednesday, that his government had made huge investments in power generation that would enable the country to export excess electricity to Nigeria and other countries in the sub-region.

We have given priority to electricity generation in our country. We have prioritised energy in such a way that we want to become the hub for power production in West Africa. We want to generate electricity to the point that excess power can be exported to Nigeria, Ivory Coast and other countries that have power deficit, he said.

To achieve this dream, Mahama said that his country had secured export-import financing from China as well as special funds from Abu Dhabi to commence a series of power generation projects and that a third hydropower dam project was already at an advanced stage.

The Ghanaian leader, who spoke in a panel discussion along with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and President Mulatu Wirtu of Ethiopia, added: Where Africa faces some of its challenges lies its biggest opportunities.

We are leveraging on public-private sector partnership to build infrastructure. Be it roads, electricity, ports or communication systems; if we create the right environment, investors will come.

Creating the right environment that will attract foreign direct investment is the key.

In achieving this, the Ghanaian leader joined Kagame and Wirtu to emphasise the need for African governments to strengthen anti-corruption agencies in their various countries.

“Issues of accountability and transparency are very important. There must be a mechanism to fight corruption. We all have institutions, but the major thing is resourcing them to effectively fight corruption and perform effectively, he noted


APA

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